When news of this story broke, my phone had already been ringing for hours as contacts from across America reached out to share information.

I have had far too much experience with these kinds of stories during my journalism career to be surprised by them. This sort of thing has been going on since the inception of professional and college sports. This is just the latest chapter in a long-running saga that will probably get worse before it gets better.

The latest scandal to be exposed involves 39 players and 17 schools in a sports corruption case. Three schools from the Atlantic 10 Conference (LaSalle, Fordham and St. Louis) along with one from the Big East Conference (DePaul) are named as the chief perpetrators of this wide-ranging criminal conspiracy.

According to a report from the U.S. Department of Justice, the lid came off this burning-kettle story when facts were disclosed of the “fix” being carried out in a college basketball game between DePaul and Georgetown University in February 2024. In Face- Time communications between “the fixers” and DePaul players Jalen Terry, Da’Sean Nelson and Micawber Etienne, plus a coconspirator identified as Person No. 6, an agreement was reached to fix an upcoming game in exchange for bribe payments.

The players agreed to underperform in the first half of the Georgetown game, so that DePaul would not cover the first-half (point) spread, which favored Georgetown by 2.5 points at sportsbooks throughout the United States and elsewhere.

On February 23, 2024, defendants Jalen Smith, Alberto Laureno, Terry and Etienne communicated via text, confirming that the DePaul players agreed to participate in the scheme. Etienne went as far as to text Smith: “Just talked to them — it’s a lock — I’m a call you after practice.”

Marves Fairley, another defendants in this case, along with the fixers and others acting at their direction, placed approximately $27,000 in wagers with sportsbooks on Georgetown to cover the first-half spread of approximately 2.5 points. As for the game in question, Jalen Terry, Da’Sean Nelson, Micawber Etienne and the aforementioned Person No.

6 all underperformed in the first half of the Georgetown game as they had agreed to do. The Hoyas of Georgetown outscored DePaul by the score of 41-28 in the first half, covering the 2.5-point spread, with the fixers covering their bets.

With their fix-bets paid off, the DePaul players performed substantially better in the second half, outscoring Georgetown 48-36. Defendant Terry scored 16 points after going scoreless in the first half. Georgetown won the game 77-76, and the fixers won their tainted bet, with defendant Jalen Smith traveling to Chicago and delivering $40,000 in cash to make the bribe payments owed to defendants Terry, Nelson, Micawber and Person No. 6.

Greed, as it is, and the motivating factor behind this scenario, should come as no surprise to anyone that Smith communicated by text, leaving a digital footprint for the Department of Justice to discover, with Etienne about delivering the bribe money and fixing another upcoming DePaul game. Etienne told Smith, “Just hit me — we got another game this weekend.”

Smith also texted Antonio Blakeney, telling him to travel to Chicago to deliver the cash bribes, and included a photograph of a large amount of cash that he would be providing to the players. This criminal behavior was repeated by DePaul players in a game against Butler.

According to DOJ records, that game and other games were fixed.

NCAA President and former Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker issued a statement on Jan. 14: “The NCAA enforcement staff has opened sports betting integrity investigations into approximately 40 student athletes from 20 schools over the past year. While some investigations are ongoing, 11 student athletes from 7 schools were recently found to have bet on their own performances, shared information with well-known bettors, and/or engaged in game manipulation to collect on bets they or others placed. This behavior resulted in a permanent loss of eligibility for all of them. Additionally, 13 student-athletes from 8 schools were found to have failed to cooperate in the sports betting integrity investigation by providing false or misleading information, failing to provide relevant documentation, and/or refusing to be interviewed by the enforcement staff. None of them are competing today.”

Thursday’s announcement comes on the heels of a Justice Department report (from October 2025) that National Basketball Association players were allegedly fixing games.

While both the college and NBA investigations are ongoing, it should be noted that we may only be scratching the surface of a criminal scandal of epic proportions. And don’t expect the sports networks to lead the investigative journalism component of this matter. When you are in bed with the gambling industry, as they all are, you are not about to bite the hand that feeds you so much.

In conclusion, “Brace yourselves for more of these types of stories, including deaths. It’s the way of the times.”