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The NCAA said protecting the “integrity” of its athletics is “of the utmost importance” to the organization after at least 26 people were charged Thursday in connection with regular college basketball games, and urged states to “ban risky betting.”
Prosecutors said the alleged participants bribed Chinese Basketball Association players in 2022 “to underperform and help ensure their teams could not cover the spread in certain games and then, through various sports booksmade sure that big stakes were placed on those games against that team.”
The following year, the participants allegedly extended their scheme to the NCAA, recruiting players and paying bribes between $10,000 and $30,000 per player. game.
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NCAA President Charlie Baker and Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell announce a gambling prevention program targeting children during a news conference at TD Garden. The program includes a school curriculum on the risks of gambling that will be rolled out to schools across the country, as well as new money for research to understand the extent of the problem. (Matthew J. Lee/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
According to the indictment, more than 39 players on 17 different teams attempted to fix more than 29 NCAA Division I men’s basketball games, including conference tournament contests. The organizers of the alleged scheme placed bets totaling millions of dollars.
“Protecting competitive integrity is of utmost importance to the NCAA. We are grateful to the law enforcement agencies working to detect and combat integrity issues and match-fixing in college sports,” NCAA President Charlie Baker said in a statement.
Baker said the allegations were not “completely new information for the NCAA,” as it had conducted “integrity investigations of approximately 40 student-athletes from 20 schools over the past year.”
The NCAA logo on the entrance sign outside the NCAA headquarters on February 28, 2023 in Indianapolis, Indiana. (Mitchell Layton/Getty Images)
FEDERAL ATTORNEYS CHARGE 26 PEOPLE FOR ALLEGEDLY FIXING COLLEGE BASKETBALL GAMES IN SPREAD CONSPIRACY
The NCAA added that 11 athletes from seven schools were “recently found to have bet on their own performance, shared information with known bettors and/or engaged in game manipulation to collect bets they – or others – placed” and have since been permanently banned.
“Additionally, 13 student-athletes from eight schools (including some of those identified above) were found to have failed to cooperate in the sports betting integrity investigation by providing false or misleading information, failing to provide relevant documentation and/or refusing to be interviewed by enforcement personnel. None of them are competing today,” Baker added.
Baker also urged states to crack down on “threats to integrity,” specifically prop betting, “to better protect athletes and leagues from integrity risks and predators. We will also continue to cooperate fully with law enforcement. We encourage all student-athletes to make informed choices to avoid putting the game at risk.”
The charges Thursday included bribery in sports contests, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and wire fraud.
“[Defendants] aided and abetted the implementation, attempted implementation, and conspired to implement, a scheme in commerce to influence by bribery sports contests, namely, Chinese Basketball Association (“CBA”) men’s basketball games and National Collegiate Athletic Association (“NCAA”) men’s basketball games, with the defendants that the purpose of this scheme was for another means of influencing this scheme with, with the defendants that the purpose of this scheme was for something else. competitions by bribery,” the indictment states.
General view of the SEC Men’s Basketball Tournament Championship game between the University of Kentucky Wildcats and the University of Florida Gators at the Georgia Dome on March 14, 2004 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Doug Pensinger/Getty Images)
The announcement follows the federal government’s crackdown on illegal sports betting and point-shaving involving the NBA in October.
