The extent of the rippling gambling scandal in men’s college basketball is slowly clarifying, as the NCAA announced Thursday that it is pursuing infractions cases involving 13 former players from six different schools. The players were not named, but their former schools were: Eastern Michigan, Temple, Arizona State, New Orleans, North Carolina A&T and Mississippi Valley State.
In previous reporting, Sports Illustrated has named all of the above schools except Arizona State.
“While the facts and alleged behaviors in each case vary, they include student-athletes betting on and against their own teams, sharing information with third parties for purposes of sports betting, knowingly manipulating scoring or game outcomes and/or refusing to participate in the enforcement staff's investigation,” the NCAA’s release states.
This comes a day after the NCAA announced permanent bans for gambling-related violations by two former Fresno State players and one from San Jose State—Mykell Robinson and Jalen Weaver of the Bulldogs and Steven Vasquez of the Spartans, who had been at Fresno State the previous three seasons.
The NCAA release says none of the institutions named Thursday are subject to sanctions, though the former players are.
“The NCAA is releasing this information at this point in the process because of the extensive public reporting regarding these cases,” the association’s release states. “The NCAA will not publicly name the involved student-athletes until the infractions process has concluded. None of them are enrolled at their previous NCAA schools.”
All of these cases involve what the NCAA characterizes as “integrity concerns,” which means point shaving, game fixing or individual performance manipulation. Sources familiar with the cases said that some are “overlapping” in nature and involve third parties from outside the institutions. Sources tell SI that many of these cases involve a coordinated effort by a group of individuals to fix games across the sport.
“Competition integrity is of the highest importance for the NCAA, and for the NCAA Enforcement staff,” NCAA vice president of enforcement Jon Duncan said Thursday. “To that end, we work hard to protect college games, the people who play them, the people who enjoy them and the people who watch them, from corrupting influences. … We are primarily focused on individuals who may have compromised game play, provided intelligence for betting purposes or otherwise failed to cooperate in sports betting investigations.”
The NCAA’s actions come amid widespread anticipation of criminal charges being filed. It is unclear how many of the NCAA cases cross over into the ongoing federal investigation. SI reported in February about potential links between the gambling ring that has been charged in the game-fixing case of former NBA player Jontay Porter and wagering on at least nine college games across the last two seasons.
As SI reported on Aug. 14, federal investigators from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania have advanced their probe of point shaving and game fixing in college basketball, conducting interviews with players suspected of manipulating their performances for the benefit of gamblers who wagered on their games. The investigation covers multiple regions and teams, sources say, with a current focus on “Southern schools.”
That probe is believed to be heading toward the indictment stage.
“There are going to be charges,” a source with knowledge of the investigation says. “It’s going to be national in scope. It’s going to involve multiple players and programs.”
Inquiries initiated by alerts from gambling compliance agencies may not all lead to findings of wrongdoing, sources say. However, the cases involving the Fresno State and San Jose State players stemmed from daily fantasy wagers made this past season that aroused attention.
In the case of Robinson, a sports integrity monitoring service notified the school on Jan. 17 that there were suspicious prop bets on the player’s performance from the Bulldogs’ Jan. 7 game against Colorado State. Robinson hit the “under” on points, rebounds, assists and three-pointers made in the game, triggering thousands of dollars in winnings for himself and Vasquez.
That was one of five instances in which Robinson was found to have placed impermissible wagers or provided information to others to make wagers. From the infractions report: “Robinson also placed 13 daily fantasy sports over-line and under-line prop bets, totaling $454, on parlays that included his own performance. Robinson did not win on all of the bets but did collect $618 on one occasion.”
New Orleans began an internal investigation in January and turned information over to the NCAA, which began its own inquiry. Four players were removed from the team by Feb. 1, with one of those players having subsequently graduated and the other three transferring, according to New Orleans interim athletic director Vince Granito. “The investigation is now between the NCAA and the players directly,” Granito says. “This is not just a University of New Orleans issue. It’s a national issue. This is going on in a lot of places.”
The NCAA investigation at Eastern Michigan also dates to January. In response to a records request from SI, the university turned over a notice of inquiry from the NCAA that was dated Jan. 17. Four days later, the NCAA issued requests for cellphone data from five individuals whose names are redacted. Eastern Michigan had two games flagged by gambling watchdogs last season: against Wright State on Dec. 21 and Central Michigan on Jan. 14, sources say.
A player at the center of the Temple inquiry is guard Hysier “Fabb” Miller, who was the Owls’ leading scorer in 2023–24. Miller scored eight points and committed three turnovers in a game against UAB in March 2024 that was flagged for suspicious wagering. Miller transferred from Temple to Virginia Tech during the offseason but was dismissed by the Hokies before this season began for what the school said was “circumstances prior to his enrollment at Virginia Tech.”
Miller sat down for a five-hour interview with NCAA Enforcement representatives last fall, according to his attorney, Jason P. Bologna. He played professionally in Germany last season.
North Carolina A&T suspended three players last January for what it termed a violation of team rules, including top scorers Landon Glasper and Ryan Forrest. When asked whether the suspensions were related to the gambling probe, head coach Monte Ross told SI via phone, “That is not accurate,” and hung up.
U.S. attorneys have not discussed the gambling ring case publicly. But their court filings imply that the scheme is significantly wider than what they have alleged so far.
To date, prosecutors have charged five people in the Porter scheme. Four of them—Porter, Timothy McCormack, Mahmud Mollah and Long Phi “Bruce” Pham—have pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Their plea agreements remain under seal, but their sentencing dates have all been pushed back, which is common in cases where defendants have agreed to testify.
A fifth defendant, Ammar Awawdeh, has been indicted for conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to influence sporting contests by bribery. Awawdeh has been negotiating a plea agreement since at least March, according to joint filings between his attorney and U.S. attorneys in the Eastern District of New York.
A sixth person, Shane Hennen, was arrested in January. He has not been officially charged, but the Justice Department has said Hennen will be charged with wire fraud conspiracy and money laundering. At the time of Hennen’s arrest, Eastern District of New York acting U.S. Attorney Carolyn Pokorny wrote a letter to a U.S. Attorney in Nevada vouching for “substantial evidence” that Hennen was involved in “illicit financial transactions and fraudulent sports wagers totaling millions of dollars,” resulting “in potentially millions of dollars’ worth of illicit profits and money-laundering transactions.”
Pokorny also described “a network of proxies and straw bettors located across the country.” The six men who have been named publicly are all from New York or Pennsylvania.
A footnote on page two of Pokorny’s letter reads, “The government respectfully requests that this letter be filed under seal as it describes …” The next five lines are blacked out.
Hennen has been negotiating a plea agreement since late January, according to joint filings between his attorney and U.S. attorneys.
All of the current charges stem directly from the scheme for Porter to fake injuries in two games so his co-conspirators could win prop bets on him. But at Pham’s plea hearing last November, it was clear that his crimes went beyond those two incidents.
During that hearing, U.S. Magistrate Judge Sanket J. Bulsara said the third paragraph of Pham’s plea agreement “runs from Page 2 to the top of Page 5” and “describes conduct related to several different frauds.” By signing the agreement, Bulsara told Pham, “You are agreeing that you engaged in the conduct related to each of these frauds … conduct that is separate and apart from the conduct that you are pleading guilty to”
“I understand,” Pham said.
As part of their plea agreements, McCormack agreed to forfeit $51,294; Mollah agreed to forfeit $40,585.54; and Pham agreed to forfeit $393,136.62.
But those amounts only account for what each conspirator gained in unlawful proceeds. It does not include restitution—reimbursing victims for losses.
U.S. Attorney Benjamin Weintraub of the Eastern District of New York said at McCormack’s plea hearing that “a very broad estimate” for his victims’ losses “would be approximately $200,000.” For Mollah—who did not join the scheme until after Porter’s first fake injury—Weintraub said victims’ losses were “approximately $26,000.”
Weintraub did not publicly estimate how much Pham’s victims lost. But Judge Bulsara said Pham would owe restitution “to victims of these frauds” that are detailed in his plea agreement, “in addition to any restitution that is required to victims for the offense that you are pleading guilty to.”
SI reporter Michael Rosenberg contributed to this reporting.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as NCAA Gambling Scandal Widens With ‘Overlapping’ Cases.