The NCAA’s investigations into betting violations continue, and the college sports association has banned another six men’s basketball players at three different universities for manipulating their own performances.
In a statement published Friday, the association said that it uncovered three separate infractions involving student athletes who were playing for the New Orleans Privateers, the Mississippi Valley State Delta Devils and Arizona State Sun Devils at the time. The three cases are not considered to be directly related to one another.
The six athletes — Cedquavious Hunter, Dyquavian Short, Jamond Vincent, Donovan Sanders, Alvin Stredic and Chatton “BJ” Freeman — are all no longer enrolled at their schools.
Students intentionally misled investigators
In all three cases, the violations involved betting-related game manipulation and/or student-athletes providing information to bettors. The NCAA said that student-athletes on all three teams knowingly provided false or misleading information to investigators.
New Orleans’ Hunter, Short and Vincent were found to have manipulated their performances in seven games in December 2024 and January 2025. In all cases, they attempted to lose the game by more points than the betting spread, said the NCAA. The university was tipped off by a student-athlete who overheard the trio of players discussing a scheme regarding a Dec. 28, 2024, game. That athlete also disclosed that during a timeout late in that game, Short told him not to score any more points.
Text messages on Vincent’s phone that were subsequently discovered by investigators found that he texted three third parties with instructions to bet on that Dec. 28 game because he and his teammates planned to “throw the game.”
Text messages between the athletes and their co-conspirators indicate they were compensated $5,000 for throwing the game.
Meanwhile, the NCAA looked into Mississippi Valley after that school was implicated in reporting about an NBA gambling ring in February. Investigators found that Sanders knowingly provided information to a third party for the purposes of sports betting for two games and Stredic did the same for one game.
In all three cases, the implicated student-athletes provided false or misleading information during the investigation process, said the NCAA. Of the six, only Freeman participated in a negotiated resolution with his school and admitted to his violations.
Arizona State incident tied to Fresno State incident
As for the Arizona State case, the NCAA said that a scheme involving Freeman was linked to a separate investigation which resulted in the NCAA permanently banning three former Fresno State basketball players in September for performance manipulation.
That Fresno State probe came about after the team’s coach Vance Walberg self-reported that a sports betting integrity monitoring service had detected suspicious prop wagers.
One of those Fresno State players was Mykell Robinson. In Friday’s release, the NCAA said that Freeman knowingly provided insider information to Robinson on four separate occasions between November and December 2024, for the purpose of Robinson betting on Freeman via daily fantasy sports accounts.
Tip of the iceberg?
The new bans are the latest in a lengthening line of incidents of betting violations and performance manipulation in college basketball.
In September, shortly after the Fresno State bans, the NCAA confirmed it was looking into alleged incidents involving 13 former men’s basketball players who competed across six institutions, including the three schools named on Friday. That probe also encompassed Eastern Michigan, North Carolina A&T and Temple.
In late October, the NCAA banned three former Eastern Michigan student-athletes who failed to cooperate with the organization’s investigation into potential sports wagering violations that were flagged by IC360.
NCAA catches heat over approved betting rule change
NCAA gambling rules prohibit wagering by any player, coach or team official on NCAA events or professional sports. Since 2023, NCAA guidelines have dictated that student-athletes who influence the outcome of their own games or provide information to third parties involved in gambling will have their collegiate athletics eligibility permanently revoked.
All of this is happening while the NCAA considers lifting the ban on student-athletes wagering on pro sports. The association’s divisional management councils approved the change and it was announced in October before the NCAA pumped the brakes on implementing it amid pushback from figures including Southeastern Conference (SEC) Commissioner Greg Sankey.
Last week, members of Congress wrote to the NCAA to express concerns about the idea.
