... And the University of Toledo appears to have been just about the only one.A fantastic, exceptionally long and detailed article on the Toledo point shaving investigations and probably scandal from Mike Fish and George Traber at ESPN.com. The article covers so much ground this post won't do it justice, but one aspect really stood out to me.
It seemed everyone except the University of Toledo and the Rockets Athletic Department knew there was something bad going down. Not only didn't the know what was happening, no one was in any hurry to tell them.
The FBI had been investigating things going back to December 2005 from information gleaned from a wiretap. Las Vegas sports books were suspicious dating back to the 2005 season.
By early in the 2005 football season, the smart guys along the glitzy Las Vegas Strip were already voicing suspicions about Toledo games. When officials with the MGM Mirage sports book formally brought concerns to the Nevada Gaming Control Board that fall, no one yet had a clue the FBI was already onto the case. But as a precaution, the 10 sports books affiliated with MGM Mirage didn't accept bets on Toledo's final eight games. The next year, in 2006, they capped bets on Toledo at $1,000 a game.The Nevada Gaming Board was notified of suspicions before the 2006 season. Offshore gambling sites based in the Caribbean also had their suspicions raised in the 2005 season.
The NCAA was also investigating.
NCAA investigators had caught wind of a potential gambling issue involving Toledo by the summer of 2006, which was months before news reached the campus in northwestern Ohio. Kenny White of Las Vegas Sports Consultants told ESPN.com that he alerted NCAA officials that summer to chatter about Toledo games. By this past fall, the NCAA had heard similar concerns from the MGM Mirage, as well as from state gaming board investigators.The University of Toledo wasn't told of anything involving point-shaving. Even by the NCAA. All the NCAA told Toledo was that there was some concern from some large betting on Toledo games in Vegas in October 2006. The school didn't learn of point shaving allegations until the FBI showed up on the campus at the end of March.
Larry Moore Jr., the investigator who led an initial Nevada Gaming Control Board probe in the fall of 2005, also said the state board notified the NCAA soon after that inquiry. Moore, now retired, couldn't recall how succinctly the situation was described to the NCAA, or whether point-shaving was mentioned to the college governing body at the time.
What discussions went on inside the NCAA's Indianapolis headquarters, or how seriously the information from Las Vegas was taken, remains a well-kept secret.
The University of Toledo's subsequent investigations turned up nothing relating to point-shaving. Instead, just some relatively minor issues regarding expenses by coaches. Through their lawyer, they are insisting that the point-shaving was an isolated incident with a rouge player.
The university and its athletic department's reaction reeks of not wanting to know anything. That may be why no one was in any hurry to fill them in on the investigations. There was federal, a state board, legal gambling interests and the NCAA all investigating and yet somehow no one at the University of Toledo caught wind of something happening.
That suggests either a willingness to cover-up or simply pull the blanket further over their own head and hope it goes away. From what was in that article, this isn't going away. Worse for the Toledo Rockets, this looks to be festering for some time as investigations continue and indictments are expected.
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