Ex-Abilene Christian player banned for allegedly throwing games
A former Abilene Christian males’s basketball player was completely banned by the NCAA on Friday for allegedly serving to rig basketball games for sports activities bettors.
According to the NCAA’s Division I Committee on Infractions, Airion Simmons — who performed at Abilene Christian from 2019 to ’24 — colluded with a teammate and agreed with a bettor to throw a March 2024 sport for cash. In a December 2025 interview, Simmons informed NCAA investigators he was additionally contacted by a second bettor about dropping the sport for cash.
In January, Simmons and the 2 bettors have been included in a sprawling indictment by federal prosecutors in Pennsylvania on numerous costs, together with bribery, fraud and conspiracy.
The point-shaving scheme typically revolved round gamblers who positioned bets and recruited gamers with the promise of a giant fee in trade for purposefully underperforming throughout a sport, prosecutors stated. Those fixers would then wager towards the gamers’ groups in these games, defrauding sportsbooks and different bettors, authorities stated.
Players usually recruited teammates to cooperate by enjoying badly, sitting out or conserving the ball away from gamers who weren’t in on the scheme to stop them from scoring. Sometimes the tried repair failed, that means the fixers misplaced their bets.
In September 2025, a former Abilene Christian males’s basketball student-athlete transferred to this system and reported that in March 2024, Simmons, together with one other teammate, tried to persuade him to affix them in purposely dropping a sport for cash.
Later, the student-athlete who reported the violations acquired a FaceTime name with Simmons, the teammate and a bettor, who informed the group to throw the sport for cash. The student-athlete who reported the violations indicated that by the point he entered the sport, the ultimate end result was already decided, and his efficiency had no affect on the result.
Simmons informed NCAA investigators he informed the bettors he had a hand damage and his standing for the sport was unclear, and he shared that one other teammate wouldn’t be enjoying within the sport. Simmons was supplied $3,500 to “play bad” within the sport. He left the sport with a hand damage after enjoying 11 minutes.
Simmons stated he met somebody in a Dallas parking zone to get money for throwing the sport. He acquired the money and didn’t pay the opposite student-athletes he had conspired with, the NCAA stated.
According to the NCAA, Simmons agreed to be interviewed by its investigators however declined to take part within the processing of the case.
Simmons is the most recent pupil athlete to lose his eligibility as a part of the point-shaving scheme. Two former Fordham basketball gamers have been additionally completely banned by the NCAA final month.
