NCAA bans ex-Abilene Christian basketball player Airion Simmons for alleged role in throwing games
A former Abilene Christian men’s basketball player has been permanently banned by the NCAA for allegedly helping rig basketball games for sports bettors.
ACU’s Airion Simmons (23) drives against SFA’s Latrell Jossell in the first half. SFA beat the Wildcats 91-89 in double overtime Wednesday, Feb. 22, 2023, at Moody Coliseum.
Acu Sfa Mbb 4 Joey D. Richards/Abilene Reporter-News / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images A former Abilene Christian men’s basketball player was permanently banned by the NCAA on Friday for allegedly helping rig basketball games for sports bettors. According to the NCAA’s Division I Committee on Infractions, Airion Simmons — who played at Abilene Christian from 2019-2024— colluded with a teammate and agreed with a bettor to throw a March 2024 game for money.
In a December 2025 interview, Simmons told NCAA investigators he was also contacted by a second bettor about losing the game for money. In January, Simmons and the two bettors were included in a sprawling indictment by federal prosecutors in Pennsylvania on various charges, including bribery, fraud and conspiracy. The point-shaving scheme generally revolved around gamblers who placed bets and recruited players with the promise of a big payment in exchange for purposefully underperforming during a game, prosecutors said.
Those fixers would then bet against the players’ teams in those games, defrauding sportsbooks and other bettors, authorities said. Players often recruited teammates to cooperate by playing badly, sitting out or keeping the ball away from players who weren’t in on the scheme to prevent them from scoring. Sometimes the attempted fix failed, meaning the fixers lost their bets.