Three former Eastern Michigan men’s basketball student-athletes did not cooperate with an investigation into suspected illegal sports betting, the governing body announced Friday.
Key Takeaways
- Eastern Michigan was the subject of suspicious betting activity related to first-half spread bets.
- The players allowed investigators to digitally copy their phones but refused to speak in interviews.
- After the season ended, legal representatives told investigators to destroy the copies.
Jalin Billingsley, Da'Sean Nelson, and Jalen Terry - all starters on last year’s team - failed to meet expectations during an NCAA probe regarding suspicious betting patterns.
NCAA officials were alerted to irregular betting behavior from several integrity services in charge of monitoring sportsbooks. Specifically, the firms revealed there had been unexpected betting activity on first-half spreads in Eastern Michigan’s game against Central Michigan on Jan. 14.
IC360, one of the firms, noted “high stakes wagers” on the matchup, which caused the first-half spread line to shift from CMU -3.5 to -6.5 just before tip-off, per ESPN. The favorites finished the first half with a six-point lead and eventually won by 19 points.
Integrity firms quickly determined there had also been suspicious activity on two games in 2024, including a March 7 meeting between UAB and Temple and a Dec. 21 matchup between Eastern Michigan and Wright State.
The NCAA’s enforcement staff contacted EMU shortly thereafter and began an investigation.
On Jan. 29, two days after speaking with attorneys, the three team members allowed an enforcement vendor to make digital copies of their phones. However, the three refused to participate in interviews with the enforcement vendor.
On March 17, 10 days after Eastern Michigan’s season concluded, the players’ legal representatives told the enforcement staff the three would not comply with the investigation and that they were to destroy the digital copies of their phones.
Limited punishment options for NCAA
The NCAA mandates that anyone asked to participate in official investigations comply with requests, such as turning over relevant material and participating in interviews.
Failing to meet these standards can result in a loss of eligibility. However, in the case of the three players, their eligibility concluded at the end of the season.
“When individuals choose not to cooperate - particularly when cases involve potential integrity issues - those choices can and will be met with serious consequences, including prohibitions on athletically related activities, the loss of eligibility and/or being publicly named in an infractions decision," the committee said in its decision.
The COI does not enforce penalties beyond a loss of eligibility. Anyone who has remaining eligibility that is stripped can only regain it through reinstatement.
Connecting the dots
An update provided earlier this year by IC360 said there was a belief that the suspicious activity on first-half spreads was connected.
“At this time, there is belief of a potential tie between these bettors, and bettors who placed suspicious wagers on First Half markets in flagged games last season,” IC 360 said.”
ESPN’s David Purdum reported earlier this month that a betting syndicate repeatedly wagered and won high stakes on first-half spread bets involving small conference schools, including Eastern Michigan, Mississippi Valley State, New Orleans, North Carolina A&T, and Temple.
Members of the ring were flagged for suspicious wagers by nine sportsbooks in 13 states and one Canadian province, according to documents obtained by ESPN.
The first report of suspicious activity came from one “relatively dormant” sportsbook account, which submitted nine $300 bets on Norfolk State to cover the first-half spread against Stony Brook.
Several weeks later, a group of bettors at Harrah’s Gulf Coast casino in Biloxi, Mississippi, wagered tens of thousands of dollars betting on first-half spreads involving the listed teams. All the bets won.
