ETSU is Fortunate They’re Not a Part of College Basketball’s Latest Gambling Scandal

Because mid-major programs like the Buccaneers are just pigeons waiting to be plucked.

Recently federal prosecutors indicted 26 men on charges of rigging mid-major college basketball games.

And while no Southern Conference team has been involved in this scandal to date, I fear it’s only a matter of time.

College basketball has always been ripe for point shaving scandals. While the high salaries in major professional sports make players almost immune to such scandals in modern times- Terry Rozier a notable exception- historically the combination of gambling lines and players not earning a salary have historically made the sport susceptible to such corruption.

And let’s face it, college basketball players at programs like ETSU are potentially ripe for the taking.

Two years ago ETSU athletic director Richard Sander suggested only the top two basketball players on the Buccaneers would make as much as 40 to 50 thousand dollars a season. He contemplated a $200,000 NIL payroll for the entire basketball team.

That’s peanuts compared to the $4.8 million Cooper Flagg is said to have made at Duke last year.

College students are notoriously broke and my presumption is there are plenty of sixth men on Division I mid-major basketball teams who can relate to Sinbad’s old bit on having a dollar for the weekend.