Arizona State linked to alleged NCAA men’s basketball sports betting violations
One former Arizona State men's basketball player is linked to the NCAA's investigation into sports betting violations by 13 athletes.
A wide angle view of the basketball court during the University of California Trojans versus the Arizona State Sun Devils basketball game at Desert Financial Arena on January 20, 2024 in Tempe, Arizona. (Photo by Bruce Yeung/Getty Images)
(Photo by Bruce Yeung/Getty Images)
One former Arizona State men’s basketball player is linked to the NCAA’s investigation into alleged sports betting violations by 13 athletes representing six schools.
Matt Norlander of CBS Sports first reported the player is BJ Freeman, who parted ways with the program with five games left in the 2024-25 regular season.
Eastern Michigan, Temple, Arizona State, New Orleans, North Carolina A&T and Mississippi Valley are schools named in an NCAA press release published Thursday. In it, the NCAA said none of those players are currently with those schools.
“It was one athlete that was involved,” Arizona State athletic director Graham Rossini told Arizona Sports’ Burns & Gambo on Thursday. “We got word of it at some point over the summer after he had already been released from the team.
“As the release mentioned today, no involvement or wrongdoing on behalf of ASU.”
The allegations vary but “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,” according to the press release.
The schools and their men’s basketball staffs are not alleged to be involved in any sports betting, and the NCAA said it is not pursuing penalties for the schools that include ASU.
“Arizona State University is aware of the NCAA investigation and outcome related to a former student-athlete who is no longer enrolled at ASU. The university cooperated fully with all inquiries and was not implicated in any way,” the university said in a statement.
The NCAA Committee on Infractions has already finished with three similar cases involving Fresno State and San Jose State.
“The NCAA monitors over 22,000 contests every year and will continue to aggressively pursue competition integrity risks such as these,” NCAA president Charlie Baker said.
“I am grateful for the NCAA enforcement team’s relentless work and for the schools’ cooperation in these matters. The rise of sports betting is creating more opportunity for athletes across sports to engage in this unacceptable behavior, and while legalized sports betting is here to stay, regulators and gaming companies can do more to reduce these integrity risks by eliminating prop bets and giving sports leagues a seat at the table when setting policies.”
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Comments
11 Comments
Who could've possibly seen this happening in sports??
Rossini made a business decision. He decided that not paying Bobby the 5 milly buyout was cheaper than the damage a non-name, non-power 5 roster, that's gonna win 3 games, would do to ticket sales. But then again, who really shows up to that morgue? You can only discount student tickets so much to get decent headcounts. After that, who wants the job? A total roster rebuild (again), mid-tier $$ and no tradition to build on, unless you count Play-in Bobby's histrionics, toddler-like fits and continual pickle face scowl of value. His whole team, except one guy who played 1/2 a season, quit on him. He should have been fired when he pulled the team off against U of A. Like most bullies, he turns into a feline when he gets punched in the mouth. All-time great player, exceedingly mediocre as a coach. Losing record 6 of 10 years at ASU.
Well, the Devils have lead the NCAA's in most violations by any school in the history of them keeping those statistics, so they can at least add that to the ledger. And so begins the last season of the Bobby Hurley era, as Rossini is going to completely gut the program, find his Dilly-Dilly for hoops, and re-start the tradition of Devils' basketball: Lever, Scott, House, Harden, and Dort, to name a few.