Three former Eastern Michigan men's basketball student-athletes did not cooperate with an investigation into potential sports betting violations, according to a decision released by the Division I Committee on Infractions. The lack of cooperation in the investigation is a violation of NCAA rules, which could trigger permanent ineligibility; however, the student-athletes have no collegiate eligibility remaining.
The individuals — Jalin Billingsley, Da'Sean Nelson and Jalen Terry — are no longer members of the school's men's basketball program.
In January 2025, the NCAA enforcement staff received notifications from multiple integrity monitoring services about suspicious first-half betting activity on Eastern Michigan's Jan. 14 game. Integrity services subsequently determined that abnormal betting activity occurred on two previous games that season as well. Shortly thereafter, the enforcement staff contacted the school and opened a collaborative investigation. On Jan. 29, two days after consulting with legal counsel, the three student-athletes — who were in their final season of eligibility — had their phones imaged by an enforcement vendor. The enforcement staff made numerous requests to interview the student-athletes through their legal counsel after their phones were imaged. On March 17, 10 days after the school's basketball season concluded, the student-athletes' counsel notified NCAA enforcement staff that the student-athletes would not participate in the process and instructed the vendor to destroy the images.
Failure to cooperate in an NCAA investigation — including refusing to interview or produce relevant materials — violates NCAA rules. As a result of the student-athletes' conduct, the enforcement staff was unable to determine whether sports betting violations occurred. The student-athletes' failure-to-cooperate violations are Level I.
"When individuals choose not to cooperate — particularly when cases involve potential integrity issues — those choices can and will be met with serious consequences including prohibitions on athletically related activities, the loss of eligibility and/or being publicly named in an infractions decision," the committee said in its decision.
Although the COI does not currently assess penalties for student-athletes who violated NCAA rules, their participation in violations is not without consequence. Student-athletes who are found to have violated NCAA rules are ineligible and can only be reinstated with the assistance of an NCAA school.
Members of the Committee on Infractions are drawn from the NCAA membership and public. The panel members who reviewed this case are Rich Ensor, former commissioner of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference; Kay Norton, president emerita at Northern Colorado and chief hearing officer for the panel; and Amy Parsons, president of Colorado State.
