Federal prosecutors have revealed a sprawling scheme to rig college basketball games while yielding big payouts to gamblers.
According to an indictment unsealed Thursday, fixers started with two professional games in China before turning their focus to recruiting college players in America to participate in similar point-shaving efforts as recently as January 2025.
The indictment, which includes charges against current and former college players, coincides with multiple NCAA probes into sports-betting violations.
Here’s what to know about the latest case:
Gamblers can bet on games with the point spread, a projected total by which one team is favored to win against another team.
Winning a bet on the favorite would mean that team won by more than the projected point spread. A winning bet on the underdog would require that team to win outright or lose by fewer points than the spread.
Prosecutors say players involved could manipulate a game, and therefore the bets related to it, by intentionally underperforming. Gamblers working with those players could then place wagers based on “higher degree of certainty” as to whether a team would cover or fall short of the spread, according to the indictment.
For example, the indictment charges former college and NBA player Antonio Blakeney with taking payments from two high-stakes gamblers to underperform while in the Chinese Basketball Association during the 2022-23 season.
In one such game in March 2023, Blakeney scored roughly 21 points below his scoring average and his team lost by 31. That covered the spread for the favored opponent so fixers could win most of their bets, according to the indictment.
Fixers later recruited college players to help ensure their teams failed to cover the spread either for the first half or an entire game, offering payments typically ranging from $10,000 to $30,000 per game.
According to the indictment, the scheme eventually involved more than 39 players on 17 Division I men’s basketball teams who manipulated or attempted to manipulate 29 games in the 2023-24 and 2024-25 seasons.
Most games were in the regular season and involved teams at the mid-major level, though DePaul in the Big East had three games cited in the indictment (against Georgetown, Butler and St. John’s) from late in the 2023-24 season.
The indictment listed at least four postseason games impacted in March 2024: Robert Morris’ first-round game against Purdue Fort Wayne in the Horizon League Tournament, New Orleans’ second-round game against Lamar in the Southland Conference Tournament, and Abilene Christian’s two games (against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and Tarleton State) in the CollegeInsider.com Tournament.
Eastern Michigan, Nicholls State, Tulane, Northwestern State, Saint Louis, La Salle, Fordham, Buffalo, Southern Mississippi, North Carolina A&T, Kennesaw State, Coppin State and Alabama State all had players who allegedly impacted games.
Four charged players competed for their current teams within the past week, however allegations against them don’t involve the 2025-26 season.
They are: Kennesaw State’s Simeon Cottle; Eastern Michigan’s Carlos Hart, with allegations tied to a previous stint at New Orleans; Texas Southern’s Oumar Koureissi, tied to his time at Nicholls State; and Delaware State’s Camian Shell, tied to his stop at North Carolina A&T.
Cottle, the preseason pick for Conference USA player of the year, is averaging 20.2 points and had 21 points in Wednesday’s win against Florida International. By Thursday, however, Kennesaw State had released a statement that Cottle was suspended indefinitely from all team activities.
Separately, Eastern Michigan announced Hart’s suspension from team activities pending the outcome of the case. Koureissi — who played for Texas Southern as recently as Saturday — no longer appears on the Tigers' online roster, while the school responded to an email from The Associated Press seeking comment with a statement saying Koureissi “has been removed from the team.”
Delaware State didn't immediately return an email from the AP requesting comment Thursday.
In a statement Thursday, Buffalo athletic director Mark Alnutt said the school will continue to cooperate with investigators.
“We believe these to be isolated incidents,” he said, “that in no way reflect the values and core ethics of the Division of Athletics or our men’s basketball program.”
In a statement Thursday, NCAA president Charlie Baker said enforcement staffers from college sports’ governing body have opened sports-betting probes into roughly 40 athletes from 20 schools in the past year.
Eleven athletes from seven schools were ruled permanently ineligible, while 13 others from eight schools failed to fully cooperate in NCAA probes, with none competing today.
News of those cases has dripped out over the past year.
For example, the NCAA banned three players in September for betting on their own games at Fresno State and San Jose State.
In October, the NCAA announced three former Eastern Michigan players refused to cooperate with its investigation. Two of those, Da’Sean Nelson and Jalen Terry, are defendants in the unsealed indictment.
A month later, the NCAA announced sanctions against six more players, a list that included two defendants — former New Orleans players Cedquavious Hunter and Dyquavion Short — from Thursday’s unsealed indictment. Hunter, nicknamed “Dae Dae,” later said on ABC's “Good Morning America” that he participated in point-shaving.
Later in November, the NCAA ruled former Temple guard Hysier Miller permanently ineligible for placing dozens of bets on Owls games, including some against his team, during the 2022-23 and 2023-24 seasons.
And in December, the NCAA said former San Francisco player Marcus Williams gave information about his stats in upcoming games during the 2024-25 season to a player from another school who was betting on his performances. Williams reached a negotiated settlement to close the case and had no remaining eligibility.
AP Sports Writer John Wawrow contributed to this report.
Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here and here (AP News mobile app). AP college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-basketball-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-basketball
FILE - NCAA President Charlie Baker speaks during the Division I Business Session at the annual NCAA convention, Jan. 15, 2025, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV, File)
