Aidan Tyksinski, Editor

In what has been a whirlwind weekend for the sports world, NCAA President Charlie Baker announced late last night that both La Salle’s women’s and men’s basketball teams were named tournament champions after it was determined that every other school was part of a historic point-shaving scandal. The Collegian was able to get an exclusive interview with Baker, who explained the entire saga in detail.

According to Baker, the scandal started when the watch group, U.S. Integrity, noticed “unusual wagering activity” in the season finale between Temple and UAB. The line had started out with UAB being 1.5-point favorites. However, hours before the game, the line went up to 8 points, which was what initially caught the attention of Integrity, who had reportedly been watching betting lines of Temple men’s basketball games for “a while”. 

“What we determined was that Temple players were betting against their team, inflating the line right before games,” said Baker. “Of course, we just assumed it was one team doing this. We had no idea the scope of this problem.”

After a careful investigation by the NCAA, multiple sportsbooks and almost every state gaming control board, it was determined that almost every school men’s and women’s teams in Division 1 had bet against themselves at least once this season. The only school that didn’t? La Salle University.

“We ran a very tight ship at La Salle,” said one member of La Salle’s athletic department. “We don’t let our players within 1,000 feet of casinos and monitor their phones to make sure no one downloads a sports betting app. Heck, we don’t even let them play fantasy football.”

While the investigation is still ongoing, it seems that for every game a team throws, each player would receive 10,000 dollars, courtesy of an international illegal gambling ring. One of the lower-tier workers, who wished to stay anonymous for safety reasons, stated exactly why La Salle was left out of this country-wide scheme.

“Honestly, we all just assumed they were a D2 program. Several people tried to explain that La Salle was Division 1, but they were not able to convince the higher-ups. I mean, look at the arena they played in and tell me that it doesn’t look like a D2 gym.” 

This is not the first time a point-shaving scandal has rocked the college basketball world. In the 1978-79 season, infamous mobster Henry Hill was able to convince some members of the Boston College men’s team to point shave games so they would not cover the spread. 

“Our goal was to create a giant point-shaving ring like this,” said an accomplice to Hill, who has since passed away. “Of course, we did not have enough connections. Then, when Henry testified against the Lucchese family, it was all over”.
Thanks to the embarrassing scandal, La Salle’s women’s team will win their first-ever NCAA championship, while the men will win their first title since 1954. The win is especially big for the women, who ended this year with an 8-22 record. One player on the team said, “I don’t care if people try to discredit us. We played the right way, and I am looking forward to celebrating on 20^th and Olney tonight!”