Buried in paragraph 25 of federal indictments For more than a dozen college basketball players, game-fixing is really the crux.
“The fakers targeted NCAA basketball players in their scheme for whom bribes would significantly supplement or exceed legitimate NIL opportunities,” it reads.
Money is flowing like never before college sports. Quarterbacks receive million-dollar offers to avoid the NFL and pursue college. Private equity is making its way into athletic department finances, and celebrities are writing a whole new verse of “Be loyal to your school” with huge promises of fiscal allegiance.
But it has not trickled down — and will not trickle down — to the Delaware States, the Kennesaw States, or the southerners of Texas. And the players knew it.
Their scheme, federal investigators asserted, was intentional and insidious. They were looking for the easiest grades, guys competing for schools where no one paid much attention and no one paid the players much, if at all. In exchange for winnings of $20,000 here or $30,000 there, players deposited hundreds of thousands of dollars on bets they were almost guaranteed to win, a brilliant return on investment.
Of course, this project was always doomed to failure. Spending nearly $200,000 on a Chinese Basketball Association game and $450,000 on Kent State to cover the spread is practically begging someone to report it. Especially when, as prosecutors described it, career criminals rely on college kids who never think they’ll get caught for anything.
According to the indictment, the players involved sent traceable text messages about fixing games, without even trying to hide what they were doing.
“I’m trying to make a lot of money while we take a small cut…I just talked to them and we’ll see what the gap is,” Micawber Etienne of DePaul wrote, according to the indictment.
Some rules are subject to interpretation. Game repair is not one of them. The players willfully and knowingly spoiled the integrity of the game, the indictment says, caring not for their teammates or coaches and only for their wallets.
The hope is that this will deter other children from making the same mistake. It should. The men they were allegedly involved with are not people to be taken lightly. Marves Fairley and Shane Hennen are also among those charged in connection with the NBA’s gambling system. Fairley pleaded guilty to gun and smuggling charges and Hennen was accused of slitting someone’s neck with a box cutter in a case that landed him 30 months in prison.
In one exchange highlighted in the indictment with a Coppin State player, defendant Jalen Smith allegedly chastised the player for not doing what he was told: “WTF are you doing (,) that must be a blowout… You’re kicking ass, wtf.. You’re supposed to lose (,) you’re costing Gus money… Blow you (n) next half, bro.”
Harming Fairley and Hennen would not seem prudent.
So maybe it ends here. Maybe seeing the federal government threaten college players with jail time scares everyone. It’s just hard to be optimistic. Money is now in locker rooms, more common than shoeboxes, and that changes everything.
College athletics have never existed on an equal footing. This is what makes them so charming and so confusing. Butler can make the Final Four and Appalachian State can beat Michigan. Except Eastern Michigan can never truly compete with Michigan, any more than Alabama State can compete with Alabama.
Years ago, I spent a weekend traveling with the Alcorn State basketball team. They took the bus from their campus to Mississippi Valley State, then to Arkansas-Pine Bluff and back. They went to a Ponderosa for the team meal and discovered it was closed, forcing them to wander to a mall food court and pick up their dinner. Earlier this year, Nebraska spent $600 on the DoorDash Smashburgers on the team’s private plane as they left Big Ten media day.
So nothing has ever been fair.
There was at least some semblance of order in this mess. Or, at the very least, an attempt to achieve it through the rules. There is no order in the new world order. Gambling is legal while almost nothing is illegal in college sports, and if that’s the case, don’t worry. There is a lawsuit to settle this.
Undrafted NBA players who participated in the G League can play college ball. Name, image and likeness agreements are not required totally be a matter of name, image and likeness. Age limits are expected to be extended and eligibility to be discussed. For higher education institutions that are unable to meet the allowable spending limit for their sports, private equity is more than willing to lend a helping hand.
Capitalism has arrived in college sports without a collective bargaining agreement or any sense of order. The concept of haves and have-nots, once cordoned off at the departmental level, now extends from team to team within a department and, more importantly, from player to player.
This is why everyone is touchy. If your teammate wins $1 million and you take home $250,000, an offer to shoot a few free throws and pocket some extra cash might seem appealing.
To be clear, the national governing body has done an admirable job of holding the line against gambling. This is wisely reverse course on a plan allowing college athletes, staff and coaches to bet on professional sports. NCAA President Charlie Baker has opposed prop betting longer and harder than anyone. Game education is on almost every team’s preseason to-do list.
And yet, according to the indictment, 39 players from 17 different schools attempted to fix 29 games. Not because they didn’t care about the game, but because, seeing money being exchanged freely and everywhere except in their wallets, they wanted their share.
On Wednesday night, Simeon Cottle scored 21 points for Kennesaw State against Florida International.
On Thursday, he was indicted for match-fixing two years ago. He would have won $20,000.
