The NCAA disciplined five current or former Iowa State football support staffers for placing more than 6,200 sports bets in excess of $100,000.
An investigation revealed that the five individuals bet on professional and collegiate sports, including college basketball games involving the Cyclones’ men’s and women’s teams, according to the Associated Press.
Key Takeaways
- The five individuals included the son of the football team’s defensive coordinator.
- One of the five now has a job in the NFL.
- The perpetrators were revealed during a probe into gambling activity at Iowa and Iowa State.
Jace Heacock, Chase Clark, Michael Dryer, Kyle Highland, and Mason Williams – in a negotiated resolution submitted last week – admitted they knowingly breached the NCAA’s sports gambling rules from 2021-23. The NCAA ruled this as a Level II violation, which is awarded to transgressions that could compromise the NCAA’s sporting integrity.
The individuals are subject to a one-year show-cause order that will expire on April 24, 2026.
A show-cause order is a legal instruction that requires parties to justify a specific action. If any of the five are hired to work in the athletic department of a school under the NCAA, they will be required to pay to attend the NCAA’s Regional Rules Seminar and serve a two-week suspension.
The illegal betting activity was discovered during a probe into athletes at Iowa and Iowa State, which resulted in charges such as underage gambling and identity theft. The show-cause punishment mirrors that which was given to a Baylor University employee who was found to have used daily fantasy sports platforms.
The guilty five
Heacock, the son of defensive coordinator Jon Heacock, was a graduate assistant in 2021-22 and was hired as the director of football analytics on April 24. He was found to have wagered 787 times for a total of $55,359 ($70.34 per bet).
Clark, a former assistant director of football equipment operations and current assistant equipment manager for the Detroit Lions, placed 2,305 bets worth $18,676 ($8.10 per bet). That included 46 bets on the ISU men’s and women’s basketball teams.
Dryer, a former assistant of equipment operations and current sales employee for a sporting goods company, made 1,182 bets for $11,536 ($9.76 per bet). Twenty-five of those bets were on ISU men’s and women’s basketball games.
Highland, a former football recruiting operations assistant and current assistant director of football operations at Army, submitted 509 wagers for $6,365 ($12.50 per bet). That included eight bets on ISU’s basketball teams.
Williams, a former associate for athletics equipment operations and current head equipment manager at Valparaiso, placed 1,455 bets worth $11,679 ($8.03 per bet). That included 12 bets on the Cyclones’ hoops squads.
Lawsuits and ongoing cases
Although the state Department of Criminal Investigation’s probe into nefarious betting activity turned up many individuals at fault, more than three dozen individuals have banded together in a lawsuit that alleged that their rights were infringed upon, and their reputations were stained.
The accused claimed that the agency “illegally, and without a warrant” used a geofencing software to highlight betting activity inside Iowa’s athletics facilities.
Prosecutors received guilty pleas in all of their misdemeanor cases but had their four felony cases dismissed.
This is just another in the growing list of incidents involving illegal sports betting activity.
