Words like “bombshell” and “shocking” were put to frequent use by reporters Thursday covering the far-reaching but on-our-doorstep college basketball betting scandal described in a 70-page federal indictment unsealed by the U.S. Attorney in Philadelphia.
Nope.
Those words fit only for those who haven’t been watching sports.
For the rest of us, there’s a fundamental question – or there should be.
What took so long?
First, regarding the “on our doorstep” tag: that includes four Louisiana colleges mentioned In the indictment which had players involved. There’s no accusation that Northwestern State, Nicholls, UNO or Tulane coaches or staff had anything to do with it – but a few players from each program did.
None of the players remain at those schools. The two from Northwestern were not named in the indictment – unlike others, they were listed as “unidentified” by federal authorities. NSU officials identified them as “former players” in a brief statement. Whether they will face prosecution like those whose names were included, we’ll see.
This we know. They were on Rick Cabrera’s first Demons’ team in 2023-24, on a roster he threw together after one-year wonder Corey Gibson’s whole team from 2022-23 left after he moved to Austin Peay.
The fix was supposed to be in for Northwestern’s Feb. 19, 2024 game at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. The betting line favoring the Islanders, per the indictment, ranged from 10.5-15.5. The Demons lost by only 11 — not good for the slimebuckets who thought they rigged the outcome.
Either the misguided Demon duo weren’t good enough to get the shave done, or decided not to do it. The fixers got bit for “at least $231,000,” said the indictment. “Unbelievable,” prosecutors said one of the schemers texted another.
In any case, those two players made a terrific mistake. They could not resist temptation.
It began to build eight years ago, when a Supreme Court decision opened the floodgates. It struck down the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act, which basically restricted sports gambling to Nevada.
Gamblers and the gaming industry rejoiced. Casinos around the country, if local laws allowed, could open sports books that took bets on every phase of pro and college sports.
It won’t take very long for you to use the TV remote and find an advertisement for sports betting. Of course, it had always been happening, but behind the scenes, illegally, or just in Nevada. Now state and local governments could get their cut.
College athletics didn’t back away from the windfall. They raced to it. Suddenly gambling sponsorships were OK. A few years in, the major powers began providing conference-mandated injury updates, better for the bettors to wager wisely.
Last year, Louisiana legislators redirected some of the sports gambling take directly to the budgets of all Division I athletic departments, providing $2+ million bumps to those 11 colleges.
But below the top tier, not many rank-and-file college athletes were getting rewarded. Even with the advent of NIL, relatively few competitors at Louisiana Tech, Grambling, ULM, or Northwestern drew more money than whatever their scholarship or financial aid packages provided.
The fix was in. Yes, it was. Wave enough cash in front of college kids struggling to make ends meet, and at some point, somebody’s gonna cave. The indictment cited payments between $10,000-$40,000. That moves the needle.
This particular prosecution involves players from high profile schools like Georgetown and DePaul – a particularly seedy segment of the indictment details a text sent by a student trainer at North Carolina, at halftime of a DePaul game, congratulating the DePaul player leading the fix. He did not score in the first half.
It involves players suiting up at the other end of Division I – Kennesaw State, Fordham, Robert Morris, Abilene Christian, Alabama State, North Carolina A&T. There are those somewhere near the middle, like LaSalle, Southern Miss. Saint Louis and Buffalo.
A Coppin State kid texted his fixer an apology at halftime, saying the opponent was so bad the Eagles couldn’t subdue their scoring to stay within the spread, even though he was telling his teammates to cool it.
Gambling isn’t going away. They gambled on chariot races and gladiators. No small amount of students walking across campus are constantly placing bets, just like you or your pal may be. It’s legal. It’s easy. For a lot of people, it’s fun.
For a few, it’s big bucks. Consider the $231k hit the fixers took when the Islanders didn’t cover. That’s a fraction of the money moving night after night, legally.
This is not the first gambling scandal. They happened on the black market before the Supreme Court inadvertently moved the line out of the shadows and within everybody’s reach.
It won’t be the last. This one just spilled into our neighborhood. Like pollution, all we can do is try to limit the impact and hope it happens somewhere else.
Contact Doug at sbjdoug@gmail.com
