Twenty-seven percent. Let that number sink in for a second. That’s the percentage of men’s Division I college basketball coaches who admit they’ve seriously wondered, or even *known*, if one of their own players was compromised because of gambling. This isn’t some backroom whisper, it’s a stark reality from a survey of nearly 100 top coaches, and it shows a troubling issue lurking beneath the surface of college athletics.
This eye-opening stat comes from the latest “Candid Coaches” feature, where college basketball insiders Gary Parrish and Matt Norlander polled D-I coaches. The question they hit them with was brutal: “Have you ever seriously wondered (or known) if a player of yours was compromised because of gambling?” While 73% said “No,” that 27% “Yes” is absolutely terrifying. It tells you everything you need to know about the growing problem of gambling scandals that have been popping up over the past two years. We’re talking players trying to fix games, shamming their own stat lines just to make a buck through betting, or worse, getting busted for betting on their *own teams*. The list of schools where this has gone down is long and ugly: Fresno State, Fordham, Arizona State, San Jose State, Abilene Christian, Alabama State, Buffalo, Coppin State, DePaul, Eastern Michigan, Kennesaw State, La Salle, New Orleans, Nicholls, North Carolina A&T, Northwestern State, Robert Morris, Saint Louis, Southern Miss, Temple, and Tulane.
So, what does it even *look* like when a player is compromised? The coaches themselves paint a picture straight out of a fan’s worst nightmare: “a stupid shot in a tense moment,” “an errant pass to one player when another was open,” “a lapse on defense,” “a lazy attempt at a retrievable rebound,” or “a lack of hustle when an opportunity seemed right there for the taking.” Usually, you’d chalk that up to a bad day, fatigue, or miscommunication. But what if it’s something way darker, something with malicious intent? One coach, despite saying he hadn’t experienced it, still laid out the real stakes: “I’m cognizant of it, very cognizant of it, and if I thought it was going on, I would turn the player in. I think this should be on the top of the list of what we’re concerned about. Guys who get caught speeding, it’s not the only time they’ve ever sped. All this stuff’s going on.” That last line? It says it all. This isn’t just a few isolated incidents; it’s a “spate of gambling-incited pyres” that college basketball has been forced to endure.
This isn’t some theoretical problem; it’s a real, ever-lurking issue for college athletics, and the numbers from these coaches prove it. While we haven’t seen a massive, country-stopping scandal *yet* this decade, it feels like the fuse is burning. How long until the next big one explodes? You gotta wonder what coaches are seeing, what they’re hearing, and how many times they’ve had that gut-wrenching feeling in their own programs. This survey is a wake-up call for everyone who loves college basketball: this problem isn’t going away, and it’s only going to get more intense.
This article was created with AI assistance and published under Seattle On Tap’s editorial standards. See our Editorial Policy.
Originally reported by CBS Sports.
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