The NCAA continues its crackdown against student-athletes who may have violated the organization’s sports-betting rules. The NCAA announced it is seeking additional sports-betting violations against 13 former men’s basketball players at six different schools.
Those players — who were not named by the NCAA — could be punished for “violations of sports betting rules and/or related failure-to-cooperate” with investigators, per a release from the NCAA on Thursday. The allegations against each player vary by case, but include players betting on or against their own team, sharing information with other parties for sports-betting purposes, manipulating game outcomes or refusing to participate in the NCAA’s investigation.
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The NCAA said the players involved in the ongoing investigation previously played for Eastern Michigan, Temple, Arizona State, New Orleans, North Carolina A&T and Mississippi Valley. The NCAA said it does not believe school or staff were involved in the alleged violations and will only look to punish the players — not their schools — for their alleged conduct. The NCAA confirmed the players involved are no longer enrolled at their previous schools.
The organization said it would not release the names of the student-athletes it is targeting until “the infractions process has concluded.” The NCAA added that it released this information Thursday due to “extensive public reporting regarding these cases.”
The news comes a day after the NCAA permanently banned three players associated with Fresno State and San Jose State due to sports-betting violations. Mykell Robinson, Steven Vasquez and Jalen Weaver were all permanently banned by the organization after it found evidence those players either bet on their own or each other’s games or shared information with each other for betting purposes.
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In a statement Thursday, NCAA president Charlie Baker said the legalization and rise of sports betting has created more opportunities for players to engage in “unacceptable behavior.”
“The NCAA monitors over 22,000 contests every year and will continue to aggressively pursue competition integrity risks such as these. I am grateful for the NCAA enforcement team’s relentless work and for the schools’ cooperation in these matters. The rise of sports betting is creating more opportunity 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.”
In an effort to identify and cut down on that behavior, the NCAA has a network of sources and enforcement staff which monitor unusual betting activities around certain games and players. It’s a method the NBA cited in its gambling investigation related to former Toronto Raptors forward Jontay Porter, who was permanently banned by the league for his involvement in a gambling scandal.
The NCAA also cited that discovery method Wednesday when it announced its decision to permanently ban Robinson, Vasquez and Weaver.