NCAA Filing Sports Betting Allegations Against 13 Former Athletes

The sports betting world is being rocked by another scandal involving college sports.

The NCAA has announced it is in the process of filing allegations of sports betting violations against 13 former men’s basketball players. Players from six schools are involved, including Western Michigan, Temple, Arizona State, New Orleans, North Carolina A&T, and Mississippi Valley. There was no confirmation of how many players each school had involved.

NCAA President Charlie Baker publicly praised the league’s enforcement staff, who led the investigations. He also took time to renew his call for states to crack down on college betting.

"I am grateful for the NCAA enforcement team's relentless work and for the schools' cooperation in these matters,” Baker shared in a statement from the NCAA. “The rise of sports betting is creating more opportunities for athletes across sports to engage in this unacceptable behavior, and while legalized sports betting is here to stay, regulators and gaming companies can do more to reduce these integrity risks by eliminating prop bets and giving sports leagues a seat at the table when setting policies." 

No timetable was provided for when more details around the 13 former athletes would be released.

ASU Involvement Stands Out

Among the six teams involved in the NCAA’s investigation, Arizona State’s name stands out. Not only is it one of the largest universities in the country, but it's also connected to one of the most infamous college betting scandals in history.

In 1998, a bookmaker named Benny Silman was convicted of bribing members of the ASU men’s basketball team to shave points during the 1994 season. It led the NCAA to come down hard on the school’s program, which still hasn’t fully recovered. Silman would serve time in prison before joining forces with the NCAA by talking to athletes about the dangers of gambling.

ASU’s two scandals, though 30 years apart, are a stark reminder that this problem has existed long before PASPA. However, it also shows how much the NCAA’s ability to better detect and expose betting scandals has improved. Between improved technology, a beefed-up enforcement team, and partnerships with sportsbooks, the league continues to show it is more capable of finding and punishing those responsible for violating betting rules.