NCAA basketball betting scandal continues to show how broken the system is as 20 players charged with bribery
- Chas Post
- 3 days ago
- 2 min read
The United States Department of Justice announced charges against 26 people including over a dozen current and former NCAA athletes, in connection "with an alleged bribery and point-shaving scheme." The indictment alleges a group of professional bettors recruited and bribed 20 NCAA basketball players – approximately between $10,000-30,000 per game – to fix games by ensuring their team failed to cover the betting spread, then wagering on those games.
“The stakes are far higher than anything on a bet slip. The charges we filed allege the criminal corruption of collegiate athletics through international conspiracy of NCAA players, alumni and professional bettors,” United States Attorney David Metcalf said. “It’s also yet another blow to the public's confidence in the integrity of sports. When criminal acts threaten to corrupt such a central institution of American life, the Department of Justice won’t hesitate to step in.”
According to the indictment, the professional bettors allegedly targeted players that didn’t have very lucrative NIL opportunities, so the alleged bribes would match or exceed their normal compensation. The group of bettors also generally targeted players on teams that were underdogs and sought to have the players fail to cover the spreads in those games. Many of these current and former players accepted the offers and agreed to help fix specific games.
To capitalize on the scheme, the bettors would wager millions of dollars to generate substantial proceeds for themselves and the players, who collectively received hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes for fixing their games. The indictment further alleges that when the bettors were successful with their wagers on fixed games, the defendants traveled to NCAA campuses and made cash payments to the players who had agreed to participate in the point-shaving scheme.
There's no doubt the athletes involved in the bribery scheme were totally in the wrong and need to take accountability for their actions, but the scandal raises the question – Is the NCAA broken beyond repair? From gambling scandals jeopardizing the integrity of sports and lawsuits regarding federal legislation to NIL compensation chaos and transfer portal tampering – the NCAA system is obviously deeply broken, and there doesn't appear to be a fix on the horizon.
