The NCAA investigation into sports betting violations at Fresno State led to the discovery of similar infractions at another California university.
Former University of San Francisco men’s basketball guard Marcus Williams was found to have violated the NCAA’s rules related to sports betting by knowingly providing information to a third-party for gambling-related purposes. Williams shared information with former Fresno State men’s basketball player Mykell Robinson, who was dismissed from the university and ruled permanently ineligible by the NCAA for manipulating his performances during games to win bets.
The NCAA initiated an investigation into Williams after their probe into Robinson revealed communication between the two players. The communication included Williams providing information for Robinson to wager on him.
Robinson leveraged daily fantasy sports accounts to place bets on Williams. The NCAA did not disclose which gaming platform Robinson used to place the wagers. NCAA gambling rules prohibit wagering by all players, coaches and team officials on events sponsored by the organization. Rules also ban wagering on professional competition.
Frequent communication between Williams & Robinson
The NCAA’s probe discovered Williams provided gambling-related information to Robinson on nine separate occasions between November 2024 and January 2025. Williams provided information to Robinson to wager on betting markets that included total points, three-pointers made and rebound-assist markets. The information provided by Williams led Robinson to place wagers on the over for the betting markets specified by Williams.
Williams failed to cooperate with NCAA staff
The NCAA initiated its probe into Williams, leading to an interview by NCAA enforcement staff in March 2025. The NCAA determined that Williams provided “false or misleading information” by denying having an association with Robinson and having a DFS account while participating as a men’s basketball student-athlete.
The NCAA determined the information Williams provided about his DFS account was false as the account was registered under his name and an active email address of his.
NCAA & Williams agree to a negotiated resolution
The sports betting violations by Williams sparked permanent ineligibility for the Texas native but the penalty will have no impact on his amateur career, as he had no remaining NCAA eligibility after three seasons at San Francisco after stops at Texas A&M and Wyoming. Williams and the NCAA reached a negotiated resolution, leading to Williams agreeing to the findings of the NCAA’s investigation. The negotiated resolution does not prevent NCAA enforcement staff from investigating other potential rules violations related to Williams, San Francisco or the men’s basketball program.
The negotiated resolution requires approval by the NCAA DI Committee on Infractions.
The committee can only reject a resolution agreement if the “agreement is not in the best interests of the association [NCAA] or if the agreed-upon penalties are manifestly unreasonable.” If the committee approves the negotiated resolution between Williams and the NCAA, all parties agree to waive NCAA hearing and appellate opportunities.
Robinson’s infractions at Fresno State
Robinson joined Steven Vasquez and Jalen Weaver as former Fresno State basketball players being deemed permanently NCAA ineligible for manipulating their performances to win bets with payouts distributed between themselves and third parties. The NCAA discovered the infractions after self-reporting by Fresno State head coach Vance Walberg. A probe found Robinson placed 13 DFS wagers, totaling $454, on his own performances.
Robinson also failed to cooperate with the NCAA’s investigation.
The NCAA has also recently deemed men’s basketball players at Temple University, Eastern Michigan, Arizona State, New Orleans and Mississippi Valley State as ineligible for also violating the organization’s rules related to sports betting.
