NCAA bans three hoops players who conspired in gambling scheme

Three men’s college basketball players were banned by the NCAA after they were found to have bet on themselves and one another. 

Mykell Robinson, Steven Vasquez, and Jalen Weaver, who played at Fresno State and San Jose State, reportedly participated in a “sports-betting related game manipulation” scheme, according to the NCAA, and were subsequently placed on the permanently ineligible list. 

The NCAA found that the trio exchanged information and bet on each other during the 2024-25 season.

Specifically, the three players were said to have talked about “individual betting lines for the purpose of manipulating outcomes to win prop bets,” per the report. 

Two of the players allegedly manipulated their performance to ensure their bets won. 

All three student-athletes were released from their teams and are no longer enrolled at their respective schools. 

The investigation started after a sports betting integrity firm flagged suspicious activity on some of Robinson’s player props.

In January, Robinson and Vasquez, roommates at Fresno State during the 2023-24 season, exchanged text messages about the former’s intent to “underperform in several statistical categories during one regular-season game.”

Robinson, Vasquez — who had by then transferred to San Jose State — and a third party bet a combined $2,200 on Robinson’s unders, which won for a $15,950 payout. 

Robinson also gambled on Weaver, his teammate at the time, in December of last year.

Weaver placed a $50 prop bet on himself in that game as well, winning $260. 

The pair had “exchanged information about their respective betting lines” before that game.

Robinson was also found to have placed 13 prop bets on himself, winning a total of $600.

Vasquez and Robinson did not cooperate with the investigation. 

Weaver “participate[d] and agreed to the violation in his case,” the report stated. 

The gambling scheme is the latest in a series of increasingly common occurrences in college sports.

Last fall, Notre Dame suspended its men’s swimming program for at least a year after an investigation revealed several gambling violations. 

In November, Temple basketball player Hysier Miller came under investigation by federal authorities for allegedly point-shaving and fixing the outcome of his team’s games.