The NCAA determined that former Abilene Christian basketball player Airion Simmons violated the organization’s sports betting integrity rules, resulting in his permanent ineligibility.
Key Takeaways
- Airion Simmons was indicted for allegedly fixing college basketball games.
- Simmons was one of more than a dozen student-athletes charged by Federal prosecutors in January.
- Simmons is now permanently ineligible to compete in NCAA sports.
In March 2024, Airion Simmons and two other Abilene Christian players are alleged to have colluded to lose a basketball game for a bettor in return for money. One of the student-athletes subsequently reported the incident to the NCAA.
Simmons eventually told the NCAA enforcement staff of a second known bettor who contacted him to throw the game. While Simmons received cash for losing the game, he did not pay the other two students involved in the scheme, according to the NCAA.
Simmons was among 20 individuals indicted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania in January. Of those indicted, the NCAA already announced sanctions against Will Richardson and Elijah Gray, formerly of Fordham University, and Simeon Cottle, formerly of Kennesaw State.
The NCAA announced its decision regarding Simmons Friday.
“Although the Committee on Infractions does not currently assess penalties for student-athletes who violated NCAA rules, their participation in violations is not without consequence. Student-athletes who are found to have violated NCAA rules are ineligible and can only be reinstated with the assistance of an NCAA school,” the league said in a statement.
The January indictments and subsequent NCAA sanctions, while noteworthy, are not uncommon in this era of expanded sports betting. They are only a fraction of known sports betting infractions among collegiate and professional athletes.
Since 2023, the NCAA has been requesting state regulators restrict high-risk bets that might be more likely to entrap college athletes, such as individual prop bets and first-half unders. Following the January indictments, the NCAA issued yet another plea to state regulators, reiterating its “request that state laws and regulations be amended to better protect student-athletes, game officials and the integrity of NCAA competitions.”
“The Association has and will continue to aggressively pursue sports betting violations in college athletics using a layered integrity monitoring program that covers over 22,000 contests, but we still need the remaining states and regulators to eliminate threats to integrity to better protect athletes and leagues from integrity risks and predatory bettors,” NCAA president Charlie Baker said.
Baker also wrote to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission in January, requesting it suspend all college sporting event contracts offered by prediction markets.
