NCAA finds 6 players from 3 schools involved in fixing games
By Dana O’Neil, Kevin Dotson, CNN
(CNN) — An ongoing investigation into game-fixing in college basketball has ensnared six more athletes from three additional schools.
The NCAA announced on Friday that players from the University of New Orleans, Mississippi Valley State and Arizona State have been deemed permanently ineligible for their involvement in game manipulation and sharing information with known bettors and unwillingness to cooperate with the investigations.
The NCAA says the cases at each school are not directly related and represent three separate infractions decisions.
The players involved – Cedquavious Hunter, Dyquavian Short and Jamond Vincent of New Orleans; Donovan Sanders and Alvin Stredic of Mississippi Valley; and Chatton “BJ” Freeman of Arizona State – are no longer enrolled at their schools, the NCAA said in its report.
“Hunter and Sanders declined to participate in their respective cases,” the NCAA said in its statement. “Short, Vincent and Stredic were unresponsive to enforcement staff as their respective cases were processed. Freeman participated in a negotiated resolution and agreed to his violations.”
In September, the NCAA announced it was investigating 13 college basketball players from six named schools. In conjunction with similar rulings involving Fresno State and Eastern Michigan, the NCAA has now ruled on 12 of those athletes at five separate schools. Temple University is the only named school to still be awaiting a decision.
While a student-athlete at Arizona State, the NCAA says Freeman provided information to an associate and to his then-girlfriend on multiple occasions for the purposes of betting on Freeman through daily fantasy sports accounts.
The cases at New Orleans and Mississippi Valley State each involved unnamed third-party bettors, with the NCAA using information from integrity monitoring services that flagged suspicious betting activity. The subsequent investigations revealed that players at both schools were overheard discussing “throwing” a game and that on the day of one of the flagged games, the New Orleans players even discussed going shopping at Saks Fifth Avenue after receiving their $5,000.
All of this comes as the feds pursue two separate gambling cases involving NBA players that include, according to reports in ESPN and Sports Illustrated, many of the same people behind the NCAA gambling probes.
Shane Hennen and Marves Fairley, both indicted in both of the NBA-related cases, are also alleged to be behind the point-shaving scandal in college basketball, per ESPN and Sports Illustrated.
Hennen and Fairley are career criminals with serious charges on their lengthy rap sheets. Hennen spent 30 months in prison for intent to distribute cocaine and was separately arrested for assault after stabbing someone. Fairley was accused in 2018 of murdering a man in witness protection. The judge, however, cited a “number of matters involving the defendant, state and others,’’ and he was given a 15-year suspended sentence with no time served.
As this unfolds, the NCAA is also toying with changing its longstanding policy that prohibits college athletes and staff members from betting on professional sports.
The NCAA initially announced it would lift that gambling ban but amid pushback from both Congress and Southeastern Conference commissioner Greg Sankey doubled back within days, giving member institutions until November 21 to vote to rescind the change.
In order to revert to the original rule and prohibit pro sports gambling, two-thirds of the schools (about 260) must file the necessary paperwork.
This story has been updated with additional information.
The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2025 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
