NCAA bans ex-Abilene Christian basketball player Airion Simmons for alleged role in throwing games

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.

In September 2025, a former Abilene Christian men’s basketball student-athlete transferred to the program and reported that in March 2024, Simmons, along with another teammate, tried to convince him to join them in purposely losing a game for money.

Later, the student-athlete who reported the violations received a FaceTime call with Simmons, the teammate and a bettor, who told the group to throw the game for money. The student-athlete who reported the violations indicated that by the time he entered the game, the final outcome was already determined, and his performance had no impact on the outcome.

Simmons told NCAA investigators he told the bettors he had a hand injury and his status for the game was unclear, and he shared that another teammate would not be playing in the game. Simmons was offered $3,500 to “play bad” in the game. He left the game with a hand injury after playing 11 minutes.

Simmons said he met someone in a Dallas parking lot to get cash for throwing the game. He received the cash and did not pay the other student-athletes he had conspired with, the NCAA said.