Sports
Wetzel: NCAA announcement shows athletes can’t win at the sports betting game
Fresno State men’s basketball was a team going nowhere, smack-dab in the middle of a dreadful 6-26 season in 2024-25. They were set to host New Mexico on New Year’s Eve as heavy underdogs, up to 17.5 points.
The hopeless nature of a forgettable game might have factored into Bulldogs guard Jalen Weaver’s apparent belief that no one would notice when he placed a $50 daily fantasy bet on himself.
He thought he’d score more than 11 points that night, and he did, notching 13 in the 103-89 loss to the Lobos.
Yet from the obscure and seemingly unremarkable stat line in an otherwise obscure and unremarkable game- – this ain’t the Final Four — the NCAA was able to nail Weaver for his actions.
The $260 Weaver won that night wound up costing him his collegiate eligibility, the NCAA said Wednesday, while also announcing the banishment of two other players who competed at Fresno and San Jose State last season.
“I just made a bad decision, and I shouldn’t even have gotten involved with that,” Weaver previously told ESPN’s David Purdum.
Let Weaver — not to mention the 13 additional players at six additional schools the NCAA announced investigations into on Thursday — be a lesson to everyone involved or tempted to be involved in manipulating so-called individual prop bets.
To quote Nike (sort of): Just don’t do it.
Certainly not the players; no matter how easy it might seem to just punch a bet into your phone or tell a friend to take the under on, say, first-half rebounding totals so the two of you can share in some winnings. If you get caught, and you very well might, the NCAA is the least of your worries.
And certainly not the sports gamblers who are inclined to bet on such oddball things, especially involving low- and mid-major games. Unless you are in on the scam, you very well might be getting scammed. These kinds of bets are just too easy to manipulate. Why would anyone risk it?
“I bet on a game I played in, but I never tried to sabotage the season,” Weaver said to ESPN last February. “I never bet on us to lose; never bet my unders.”
It’s not hard to see the temptation. Sports wagering and the requisite “fixing” that goes along with it have been present for generations, but sports betting has never been more in the face of athletes and would-be gamblers.
Advertisements. Partnerships. Betting apps.
It’s everywhere, and thus tempting to everyone.
Easy money, just for scoring two more points than the line in some fantasy game? All while playing for a losing team?
Yet it possibly, or even probably, isn’t going to work out. That’s the lesson of all these NCAA cases that continue to pop up. Many don’t involve the games and players that the public are focused on, but rather ones in the most distant corners of the sport.
A day after announcing the cases at Fresno and San Jose, the NCAA revealed 13 more athletes are suspected of “betting on and against their own teams, sharing information with third parties for purposes of sports betting, knowingly manipulating scoring or game outcomes and/or refusing to participate in the enforcement staff’s investigation.”
They formerly competed for six schools: Eastern Michigan, Temple, Arizona State, New Orleans, North Carolina A&T and Mississippi Valley. This isn’t exactly Duke, Kansas and UConn.
The NCAA’s history of enforcing its own voluminous rulebook is sketchy at best, but this is an entirely different deal. It has partnered with cutting-edge integrity watchdog groups that can analyze data and betting trends wholesale. The NCAA is also only one of several entities focused on this problem, from casinos and state regulators to the FBI.
It’s impossible to know how many athletes aren’t getting caught in the dragnet, but many clearly are.
“The NCAA monitors over 22,000 contests every year and will continue to aggressively pursue competition integrity risks such as these,” NCAA president Charlie Baker said.
The NCAA is diligent in its education efforts, trying to reach all 500,000 student-athletes — repeatedly — with a message about the dangers, including that this isn’t just about big-time players on big-time teams. It’s everyone, even down to Division III.
“In terms of educating athletes, we [constantly repeat that] you don’t have to be the star player in order to be at risk,” Mark Hicks, who spearheads the NCAA’s anti-gambling and anti-gambling education efforts, told ESPN. “That is something that is a key message point in every delivery session on campus.”
If information sessions and workshops and posters in the locker room haven’t been enough to reach everyone, then maybe more of these high-profile cases at low-profile schools in low-profile games will.
Because while technology has made this stuff so easy and tempting, it also has made getting caught easier, if not inevitable.
Pakistan left-arm spinner Noman Ali completed 100 Test wickets, becoming the oldest player in history to reach the milestone during the first Test against Bangladesh at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium on Tuesday.
He claimed the milestone by dismissing Mehidy Hasan Miraz, joining an elite group of Pakistan bowlers and becoming the ninth spinner and 20th overall to achieve the feat.
The left-arm spinner also picked up the crucial wickets of Bangladesh skipper Najmul Hossain Shanto and Taijul Islam.
At 39 years and 217 days, Noman became the oldest player in Test history to reach the 100-wicket milestone. He surpassed former England spinner Bobby Peel, who reached the mark in 1896 at the age of 39 years and 180 days.
The 39-year-old also reached another landmark by becoming the joint fourth-fastest Pakistan bowler to claim 100 Test wickets, achieving the feat in his 22nd Test match.
England great George Lohmann holds the world record for the fastest to 100 Test wickets, having reached the milestone in just 16 matches, while several Pakistan bowlers also feature among the quickest to the landmark.
Oldest players to reach 100 Test wickets
- Noman Ali (Pakistan) – 39y 217d
- Bobby Peel (England) – 39y 180d
- Ray Illingworth (England) – 39y 30d
- Clarrie Grimmett (Australia) – 39y 22d
- Sydney Barnes (England) – 38y 310d
Fastest Pakistani bowlers to 100 Test wickets
- Yasir Shah – 17 matches
- Saeed Ajmal – 19 matches
- Waqar Younis – 20 matches
- Mohammad Asif – 20 matches
- Noman Ali – 22 matches*
- Fazal Mahmood – 22 matches
- Saqlain Mushtaq – 23 matches
Sports
Craig Morton, quarterback who led the Broncos to their first Super Bowl appearance, dead at 83
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Former Denver Broncos quarterback Craig Morton, who was inducted into the team’s Ring of Fame, died on Saturday. He was 83.
Morton was critical in helping the Broncos reach their first-ever playoff appearance, ultimately getting them to Super Bowl XII during the 1977 campaign.
After going 12-2 during the season, and getting wins in the playoffs over the Pittsburgh Steelers and then-Oakland Raiders, Morton was named the AFC Offensive Player of the Year.
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Denver Broncos quarterback Craig Morton stands on the sidelines with both hands on his hips. (GETTY)
“Craig Morton is unbelievable,” fellow Ring of Famer Haven Moses said after the Broncos won the AFC Championship in 1978, per the New York Times. “To me, he’s the most valuable player in the National Football League.”
Morton also won Sporting News Player of the Year, the PFWA Comeback Player of the Year and the NFL UPI MVP in 1977.
“We are saddened to learn of the passing of #BroncosROF quarterback Craig Morton, who died on Saturday at the age of 83,” the Broncos posted on social media.
Morton also led the Broncos to two different division titles and three playoff berths during his six seasons with the franchise. He finished his career in Denver with 11,895 passing yards, which marked the most in franchise history at the time.
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Quarterback Craig Morton #7 of the Denver Broncos drops back to pass during an NFL game at Mile High Stadium in Denver, Colo., circa 1978. Morton played for the Broncos from 1977 to 1982. (Focus On Sport/Getty Images)
Morton also led the Broncos with pass attempts (1,594) and completions (907). But Morton’s time with the Broncos was the latter half of his NFL career.
He was drafted by the Dallas Cowboys in 1965, the fifth overall pick out of Cal. Morton spent the first 10 seasons of his career with the Cowboys, where he threw for 10,279 yards with 80 touchdowns and 73 interceptions. He went 32-14-1 in his time with Dallas.
Then, during the 1974 season, Morton was moved to the New York Giants, a division rival of the Cowboys. He went 1-6 in his first seven starts that year and wouldn’t find much success in New York across three seasons.
Quarterback Craig Morton #7 of the Denver Broncos drops back to pass during an NFL game at Mile High Stadium in Denver, Colo., circa 1978. Morton played for the Broncos from 1977 to 1982. (Focus On Sport/Getty Images)
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For his career, Morton threw for 27,908 yards with 183 touchdowns. He owned an 81-62-1 record across 207 games.
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Indiana’s Fernando Mendoza’s year couldn’t have been more perfect.
He led his Hoosiers to an unblemished 16-0 season, captured the national championship in historic fashion and won the 2025 Heisman before being selected first in the 2026 NFL Draft by the Raiders.
Now that the path is clear for a new athlete to leave NYC in December holding the Heisman, who will it be?
Here are the way-too-early odds at DraftKings Sportsbook as of May 5.
This page may contain affiliate links to legal sports betting partners. If you sign up or place a wager, FOX Sports may be compensated. Read more about Sports Betting on FOX Sports.
2026 Heisman Trophy Winner
CJ Carr (Notre Dame): +750 (bet $10 to win $85 total)
Arch Manning (Texas): +750 (bet $10 to win $85 total)
Julian Sayin (Ohio State): +1000 (bet $10 to win $110 total)
Dante Moore (Oregon): +1000 (bet $10 to win $110 total)
Trinidad Chambliss (Ole Miss): +1100 (bet $10 to win $120 total)
Josh Hoover (TCU): +1200 (bet $10 to win $130 total)
Darian Mensah (Miami, FL): +1200 (bet $10 to win $130 total)
Jeremiah Smith (Ohio State): +1300 (bet $10 to win $140 total)
Gunner Stockton (Georgia): +1800 (bet $10 to win $190 total)
Sam Leavitt (Arizona State): +2000 (bet $10 to win $210 total)
Marcel Reed (Texas A&M): +2500 (bet $10 to win $260 total)
Jayden Maiava (USC): +2500 (bet $10 to win $260 total)
John Mateer (Oklahoma): +2800 (bet $10 to win $290 total)
Here’s more on a few of the names on the 2026 Heisman oddsboard:
The Favorites: Carr and Manning are tied at +750 to win the Heisman Trophy at the end of the 2026 regular season. And the latter is no stranger to Heisman talk. He opened as the favorite for the 2025 Heisman at several books and right before the season kicked off, bettors were hammering Manning’s futures. The excitement over Manning was short-lived once his Longhorns went 4-2 to begin the season. If he is at least named a finalist, he would follow in the footsteps of his uncles and his grandfather, as both Peyton and Eli Manning, and their dad Archie, were Heisman finalists during their college careers.
Arch Manning is an early favorite to win the 2026 Heisman Trophy.
Ones to Watch: Ohio State teammates Jeremiah Smith and Julian Sayin are two players to watch for next season’s Heisman — especially because they were both in the conversation to win the award most of 2025. Sayin, in fact, was a Heisman finalist and finished fourth in the race with eight first-place votes. Smith didn’t make the trip to New York but finished sixth in the tally. FOX Sports college football writer RJ Young projects that both Smith and Sayin — as well as Manning — will be in the running in 2026.
Ohio State’s Julian Sayin could make another trip to NYC — but this time as the winner.
Heisman in Troy?: Could Maiava bring the hardware back to SC from NYC? Based on the early odds, he could have at least a slight chance. If the Trojans’ QB wins the most coveted individual award in college football, he’d be the first USC player since Caleb Williams (2022) to do so. Maiava finished the 2025 season with 3,711 passing yards and 24 touchdowns, as his squad ended the year with a 9-4 record.
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