Airion Simmons Permanently Banned by NCAA Over March 2024 Game-Fixing
Airion Simmons was permanently banned by the NCAA on Friday after the association said the former Abilene Christian player helped rig a March 2024 game for sports bettors. The ruling ends his NCAA eligibility and closes one enforcement case in a broader point-shaving probe.
Airion Simmons and Abilene Christian
The NCAA's Division I Committee on Infractions said Simmons colluded with a teammate and agreed with a bettor to throw the game for money. He played at Abilene Christian from 2019 to 2024, then became one of the latest players tied to the scheme to lose eligibility.
Investigators said Simmons told bettors, "I had a hand injury" and that his status for the game was unclear. He also said another teammate would not be playing, and he was offered $3,500 to "play bad" in the game.
March 2024 Cash Exchange
Simmons said he left the game after 11 minutes with a hand injury and later met someone in a Dallas parking lot to get cash for throwing the game. The NCAA said he received the cash and did not pay the other student-athletes he had conspired with.
That account sits alongside a more damaging detail from the case: in September 2025, a former Abilene Christian men's basketball student-athlete reported that Simmons and another teammate tried to convince him to join them in purposely losing a game for money. The reporting student-athlete said Simmons, the teammate and a bettor later called him on FaceTime and told the group to throw the game for money.
NCAA Indictment Fallout
Simmons also told NCAA investigators in December 2025 that a second bettor had contacted him about losing the game for money. In January, Simmons and the two bettors were included in a federal indictment in Pennsylvania on charges including bribery, fraud and conspiracy.
He agreed to be interviewed by NCAA investigators but declined to participate in the processing of the case. Two former Fordham basketball players were also permanently banned last month, a sign that this enforcement wave is reaching beyond one campus and one game.
