This week’s Club Sportico focuses on a series of sports betting investigations underway in college basketball, ones that could impact dozens of athletes at numerous D-I schools.

New U.S. gambling scandals seem to be popping daily, and the two most recent—ones involving the NBA and UFC—have something specific in common: both involved FBI investigators. If the federal government has decided that it cares about bet-rigging in U.S. sports, then college basketball is likely facing a whirlwind of allegations and discovery that could upend programs and impact fans.

It’s easy to see why college hoops might be particularly susceptible to sports betting fraud. Especially at the sport’s mid and lower tiers, athletes receive little compensation with few prospects for a lucrative pro career. There are far more teams than in college football, and much smaller rosters, so individual players have an outsized impact on the potential outcome of games. College students are generally less mature than their pro counterparts, and may be more susceptible to manipulation by criminals. Smaller schools also have far fewer resources to dedicate toward athlete education and compliance.

Here is an excerpt of the latest Club Sportico essay ✍️:

The breadcrumbs are all over. In September the NCAA announced it was investigating 13 players from six schools—Arizona State 🔱, Temple 🦉, Eastern Michigan 🦅, New Orleans 🏴‍☠️, North Carolina A&T 🐶 and Mississippi Valley State 👹—for potential gambling violations. A few weeks ago, in a statement responding to the NBA’s bet-rigging latest, the governing body said its enforcement staff had opened investigations into “approximately 30” current or former men’s basketball players. Then, on Friday, the NCAA announced the results of some of those probes, with six players being deemed permanently ineligible.

Feds are also on the case. Some of the same people caught in the FBI’s NBA probe are also linked to suspicious college betting. And according to ESPN, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania is investigating allegations of point shaving in college basketball. Point shaving. That’s the nightmare scenario for NCAA president Charlie Baker and others in college sports, even if it comes out at a smaller D-I school like New Orleans.

The NCAA, which would obviously be well aware of any federal probe, has also been ringing other alarm bells for more than a year. The Indianapolis-based organization has pushed state lawmakers—occasionally successfully—to ban prop bets in college sports, and has been increasingly outspoken about the toll that the industry has on athletes via online abuse and mental health challenges.

In a 2023 survey of athletes, the NCAA found that 25% of “Power Five” conference athletes and 10% of D-I athletes were aware of harassment from people with gambling interests.

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