The Josh Innes Show - We Have Another College Sports Betting Scandal

Episode Date: September 11, 2025

As I've said, we are going to see more of these types of stories. This one involves basketball players at Fresno State and San Jose State betting on and impacting prop bets. This will continue. I think it will continue to be more prevalent at lower tier schools like these. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Well, here's a shocker. You have more college athletes getting banned for betting on games. In this case, it's dudes betting on themselves. I'm shocked that we don't see more stories about this. But based on the fact that these stories are about games that happened a year or so ago, I wouldn't doubt that there are more investigations ongoing as it relates to betting on college sports. And we're going to see more and more of these. Now, I don't know how much we're going to see, but we're going to continue to see these stories.

because it's impossible for these guys to not bet on themselves in some instances. So let's get a couple commercials in here and we'll talk about it. Hey, it's Josh. The NFL season is rolling along and every touchdown can bring you closer to a payout with Draft King's Sportsbook and official sports betting partner of the NFL. From first touchdown score to anytime TD props or the thrill of live in-game betting, which I love, every snap is loaded with opportunity. and you have got cool stuff, man.

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With its 626 horsepower twin turbo V8 engine, the Defender Octa is taking on the Dakar rally. the ultimate off-road challenge. Learn more at landrover.ca. All right, so who are the latest Jemokes to bet on themselves? The three Jemokes that have been banned by the NCAA were basketball players at Fresno State and San Jose State. Those would be the kind of schools where you'd really expect to see that, right? Like, if you've got a scholarship or who knows if a scholarship even matters anymore. But if you're somebody who's got a, you know, if you're getting an NIL deal or whatever, scholarship, whatever, and you're playing at Ohio State or LSU or Duke or Carolina, there's a lot more on the line for you and probably more money-making opportunities than there is at Fresno State and San Jose State.

So like if you were to build the perfect anatomy of a guy getting popped for sports betting or betting on himself or betting on a basketball game that he is playing in or football game, you would think that these would be the kind of schools where it would make the most sense, right? Like it would be a San Jose State, Fresno State, Utah Valley State, like somewhere where they can still bet on the games, but also like no one's kind of paying attention. They're out of side out of mind. and they're probably not getting any NIL money. I can't fathom that some guy's getting huge NIL bucks to go to San Jose State to play basketball. To build this, you'd have to be in a place where there's not a lot of money coming in and you need to find a way to make a quick buck on something. Anybody that's on the roster at North Carolina probably has an opportunity to make a couple of bucks and be all right.

Anybody at Duke has the opportunity, like the little white guy that waves the towel at the end of the bench or the other little white guy that holds the dudes back during March Badness when the one black guy on the team makes the three at Duke and is holding everybody back, like that dude probably has an NIL deal at Duke or at least has something. It worst has a scholarship and knows he's not going to play professional basketball so actually goes to class and knows that there is an incentive to stay above, you know, the law, right? Or stay on par with the law above the line. If you're some dude at Fresno State and you're like, hey, maybe I can score a few

bucks and no one's paying attention to our shit anyway. Who cares? That would be the kind of place where that would make the most sense. The NCAA announced three men's basketball players at Fresno State and San Jose State collaborated to manipulate performance for the purpose of sports betting, as the organization said, they bet on their own games and provided information for others to do so. Oh, Pete Rose did his bet on himself? What's wrong with that? The players, San Jose State's Michael or Michael Robinson and Stephen Vasquez, as well as Fresno State's Jalen Weaver, were released from their teams, are no longer enrolled at their schools, and permanently banned from the NCAA for violating ethical conduct rules, the NCAA Committee on Infractions announced. So this investigation began in January, so we're talking over nine months ago, after a sports integrity monitor service notified Fresno State, a Nevada sports book operator flagged suspicious prop bets on Robinson for the January 7th game against Colorado State.

Fresno State and the NCAA enforcement staff then found on Robinson's phone, he conspired with Vasquez, his former roommate at Fresno State, for the 2023-2020-4 season, to place bets on his underlying totals for the January 7th contest. Brother, you were never going to get away from it. This had no chance. As we've discussed before, if you are going to try to shave points or if you are going to try to fuck with the under and a game for a quick buck, you cannot get yourself into a position where people can link the person back to you and you certainly cannot have a paper trail. You guys need to get walkie-talkies. You guys need to send letters to each other.

You guys need to have like a certain. It's kind of like when you'd watch casino and like the phone lines were tapped. So they had to speak in codes and like, well, this means this and this means this. Or like, you know, like in Smoky and the Bandit when like they're trying to avoid being on the same frequency as the smoky. So he's like, well, how about this? If I say that we're going to Channel 4, forget that. That means 18. He's like 4 is 18.

Like that, like that's kind of what you have to do. That's why you should never cheat on a spouse and you should never commit crimes because you will never get away with them, especially if you leave a paper trail, especially if you are texting somebody about it, especially if the person who is perpetrating the fucking crime with you is your fucking roommate. I want the details on these. I want to know what this dude did. Like what prop bets he took.

Okay. Robinson finished the game with three points, two rebounds, and one three-pointer, and no assist to, quote, ensure the underlying bets won, according to the investigation, which resulted in 15,950 total payout from combined, 2,200 of betting by Robinson, Vasquez, and a third party. During that season, Robinson placed 13 daily fantasy sports overline and underlying prop bets, including on his own performance.

The NCAA said Robinson also placed bets on Weaver, a former teammate at Fresno State, in December of 2024. After the two exchanged information on their respective betting lines, Weaver placed a prop bet for himself, Robinson, and another unnamed student. and athlete. Fellas, if we're going to fuck with the betting and we're going to do something that is going to get you banned from your school and is going to have you kicked out of basketball for life, if we are going to do that, we cannot have a paper trail.

Again, we cannot have a paper trail. It's not going to work. That is no good. I don't know what the solution is. I've never been involved in this sort of nefarious behavior, but you cannot, under any circumstance, have text messages that link you back to these people. These text messages are for fucking ever, especially if you're going to have somebody making big bets on a prop bet in the fucking Fresno State, Colorado State basketball game.

Like, that on its own is suspicious. Like, I mean, one thing if dudes are taking prop bets on, like, you know, on big star players. Like, who's the dude at, the white dude at Duke, the number one pick? I'm drawing a blank on the guy's name. But, like, if you were taking a prop bet on that guy, the whole world knows who. that guy is. So it is possible that somebody may bet $2,000 on a prop bet or a string of prop bets involving that dude, right? Like, you could see that. That's something that could happen because, you know, like people bet, like generally speaking bet on the biggest names and they

bet on the biggest team names and the biggest player names, right? Those are the most bet games. Like the savvy people find, you know, the Fresno State, Colorado State games to bet on. either the savvy people or the people who are in on a fucking scam also do that. And that's what we're looking at here, a fucking scam. So, again, you want to make money off of it, but you can't be suspicious. And I don't know what number would trigger or what amount of money you could bet that would trigger that suspicion. I don't know if they're seeing, well, Fresno State, Colorado State, this guy who is what he is, it's weird, but somebody just bet, you know, 500 bucks. Would that be too much or 200 bucks?

The problem with only betting like a hundred bucks on a prop bet is it's not going to get anybody's attention. It's also not going to make you any money. It's not going to be worth your time. So I get where you want to bet a large sum of money because you know you're going to win. I mean, this is very similar to the old days. They weren't betting on prop bets, but like in the Boston College scandal, like the mob was involved in it, and they bought off the players and they said, make sure you don't win by seven or make sure you lose by less than eight or whatever. But in this instance, like a no-name player like these dudes we're talking about here, if someone randomly puts $2,200 on a prop bet, and like if Vegas sees, you know, if they lose $13,000, if these sites lose $13,000 to you, and it's on a prop bet for some random dude from Fresno State, that is an instant red flag.

And then you've got text messages and everything else. This was never going to work. Vasquez and Robinson informed the enforcement staff they didn't want to participate in the investigation. the NCAA said, while Weaver participated in the investigation, admitted to the betting, and agreed to the punishment. The cases were resolved in coordination with Fresno State and San Jose State. Robinson was removed from the roster after playing his final game on January 11th, while Weaver told ESPN he was dismissed from the team and planned to enter the transfer portal. Let's see, here's the statement from Fresno State. Fresno State holds itself to the highest standards of integrity, character, and sportsmanship, and has an unwavered.

commitment to compliance with the NCAA and conference rules. Oh, I'm sure you guys do. The university proactively shared reported information concerning sports wagering activity with the NCAA and worked collaboratively with the NCAA through staff throughout the investigation. The university continues to have confidence in the Fresno State Athletics culture and grateful to conclude this matter. So there you go. By the way, athletes that bet on their own games lose their eligibility permanently, and sports betting in any form is prohibited. though there has been movement to allow athletes and athletic staff members to bet on professional sports, which, what could go wrong there?

This is going to happen more often, and it's going to happen at places like Fresno State and San Jose State where guys are kind of off the map, off the grid, and you can just kind of screw around and think nobody's going to notice you. The key is, and this makes it hard because nobody wants to go through the whole process of rigging a game or shaving points or fucking with a prop bet to make $90. So you obviously have to bet large sums of money on it, but if you bet large sums of money on it, you're going to get flagged, and then you're going to get popped. That's kind of the obvious answer there. But what if we start – but these are just the ones we know about. I feel pretty comfortable, though, saying that there aren't people getting away with these on a high level. They're trying, but there's no way. Because, again, you have to make it worth your while.

If a player is going to engage in this, he's not going to do it so he can make $100. bucks. A hundred bucks ain't going to pay for shit. So it has to be worth your time. And any amount of money that would be worth your time is going to generate interest from all these other people and they're going to try to bring you down when they see some random dude that no one has ever bet on. No one knows who you are. And then randomly out of the blue, somebody bets three grand on an under. And the under is also the suspicious part because you can control the under. You can't control the over, but you can control the under. All right, more to come.