Sports betting scammers see HBCU players as easy targets

The fallout from the NCAA investigation involving four former Alabama State players is the latest example of HBCU players being targeted in sports betting scams.

ASU is the latest school to have its name attached to one of the ugliest phrases in sports: game manipulation. The NCAA says four former men’s basketball players were involved in sports betting integrity violations tied to a 2024 game against Southern Mississippi.

The report said the four former student-athletes are permanently ineligible. One agreed to his violations. Others either denied parts of the NCAA’s findings, did not cooperate or declined to participate.

Alabama State, for its part, said it was not a party to the case. The school said it cooperated with the NCAA throughout the process and remains committed to integrity and compliance.

Still, the larger issue does not stop with one school, one game or one group of players. This is about a college sports economy that keeps growing richer at the top while making lower-resource programs more vulnerable at the bottom.

Sports betting did not create temptation. Gambling scandals have been around for generations. Point shaving has haunted basketball since long before mobile apps made it possible to place a wager from a couch, a dorm room or a sportsbook account.

What has changed is the speed, access and scale.

College sports is now living in the NIL era. Players at major programs can make six figures. Some can make seven. Schools and collectives with deep pockets can put real money in front of athletes before the season even starts.

Meanwhile, many Division I programs are still trying to figure out how to keep up. That includes HBCUs.

The money gap is the vulnerability

Nobody should pretend that a full scholarship is nothing. It is a serious opportunity that can change lives, families and futures.

But college athletics is now operating in a world where the scholarship is no longer the full conversation.

There are players at high-major schools earning serious money while others at Division I programs are competing with far less. Multiple HBCU coaches have said publicly this year that their programs do not have the NIL budgets to pay players at a meaningful level. That imbalance creates a problem.

All Division I schools may share the same classification, but they do not share the same financial reality. Some programs fly private. Others are trying to stretch every dollar. Some athletes have NIL deals that look like salaries. Others may be trying to get through the semester with little more than meal money and hope.

That is where sports betting becomes more sinister.

According to the NCAA report, one former Alabama State player said the four players received a total of $2,000 for throwing the Southern Miss game. That averages out to $500 per person. Five hundred dollars.

That number is almost hard to sit with. Four players are now attached to a sports betting scandal that can follow them for the rest of their lives. The amount alleged was not life-changing money. It was not even semester-changing money. Yet it may have changed how they are viewed forever.

HBCUs have to educate before the damage is done

This is where HBCUs and other lower-resource institutions have to be brutally honest. They are targets.

That does not mean every player is looking for a shortcut. It does not mean every locker room is compromised. Most student-athletes are trying to compete, graduate and represent their schools the right way

But bad actors know where pressure points exist. A player making serious NIL money may still make bad choices. Money does not make anyone immune from foolishness. But it takes less to tempt someone who has less.

That is not an excuse. It is a reality.

HBCUs have always taken pride in educating the whole student. That mission has to include sports betting education now. Not a quick compliance meeting nor a form signed at the beginning of the year. Not a five-minute lecture before practice.

It has to be direct, repeated and personal. Players need to understand that this can cost them more than eligibility. It can cost them their reputations. It can cost them professional opportunities. Years later, it can follow them into job interviews.

A future employer may not care about your 20-point game in the SWAC Tournament. A general manager overseas may not care that you helped make school history. They may search your name and see that you were connected to allegations of throwing a game. That stain does not wash away easily.

Even being somewhat implicated is damaging. That is the part young athletes may not fully understand. The internet does not wait for nuance. It does not always separate allegation from admission. Once your name is tied to game fixing, the burden becomes yours to explain.