Then came the indictments and the trials and the verdicts and the oddest thing happened: Nearly anyone of importance was left untouched. None of the head coaches mentioned in the trumpeting of the discoveries, not Miller of Arizona nor Bill Self of Kansas nor Will Wade of Louisiana State, was indicted. There had been no lack of intriguing evidence. A text message showed Self asked an Adidas executive — who supplied the cash that greased the recruiting gears — if he had sealed a deal for a prized recruit to attend Kansas. Wade was heard on a wiretap saying he made a strong — read: lucrative — offer to a prized recruit and his family.

And an Arizona assistant coach was heard on a wiretap suggesting Miller had agreed to pay a star center, Deandre Ayton, $10,000 a month. As a plotter said of Miller: “He’ll talk on the phone about things he shouldn’t talk on the phone about.”

Those who prosecutors indicted, tried and convicted were a hodgepodge of the far less illustrious: A few assistant coaches and basketball lifers, a hapless clothier and a street-smart runner for a top professional agent.

I called Craig Mordock, a former prosecutor in New Orleans who defended an assistant coach at Arizona who had been convicted and served a short prison sentence. He snorted into the phone. “Minnows charged and the big fish swam away,” he said. “Congratulations.”

Self and the University of Kansas remain under N.C.A.A. investigation, not that it’s hurt much as the team is ranked first in the nation at 26-3.