Following last week’s criminal charges against seven previous or current athletes for participating in illegal sports betting activities at Iowa State University and the University of Iowa, by Iowa and Iowa State, new ones are now on the horizon, this time against “Jirehl Brock, three other Iowa State football players, along with three current or former Iowa football players and a student assistant.”
Ongoing investigation:
Since the investigation officially began, 15 basketball and football players as well as staff working at the aforementioned universities, have been indicted, adding to the consequences of disqualification for breaching NCAA gambling rules.
Furthermore, teammates of ISU and Brock, DeShawn Hanika, Isaiah Lee and Jacob Remsburg have been officially charged in Story County for allegedly manipulating records to conceal that they were under the legal wagering age at the time they made the bets. Additionally, former Iowa players Reggie Bracy and Arland Bruce IV, present Iowa player Jack Johnson and the said student assistant Owen O’Brien were indicted with the same matter in Johnson County.
In this regard, court documents state:
- “Brock, the Cyclones’ leading rusher last season, placed 1,327 illegal wagers totaling over $12,000 between February 2022 and February 2023. The bets were made on a FanDuel account controlled by him but registered under the name of Lindzey Paysen. Paysen’s relationship to Brock was unknown. Brock is accused of making bets on three Iowa State football games, two in which he played, and 13 ISU basketball games,
- Lee, a defensive lineman, made 115 wagers totaling over $885 between September 2021 and January 2023 on FanDuel. Among them were 21 wagers on seven ISU football games in 2021 and five more games in 2022. He played in each of the games. His account was registered under the name of a woman described as his fiancee, Kayla Cameron,
- Hanika, a tight end, made 288 wagers totaling $1,262 between March 2022 and April 2023 through DraftKings, with 70 of the bets on ISU basketball games. His account was registered under the name of his mother, Kim Hanika,
- Remsburg, an offensive lineman, made 273 wagers totaling $1,108 between May 2022 and February 2023 through FanDuel. Six bets were on ISU basketball and football games. Remsburg’s account was registered under the name Keri Remsburg. The filing also referenced a DraftKings account registered under the name of his mother, Keri Meis. It was unclear whether Keri Remsburg and Keri Meis are the same person,
- Bruce, a receiver who started 12 of 25 games before transferring to Oklahoma State, made 132 bets totaling $4,342 with DraftKings. Among those were wagers on six Iowa football games in 2021 and six more games last season. Bruce played in each of the games. His account was registered under the name of Vincent Bruce, whose relationship to Arland was not listed,
- Bracy, a defensive back who is now at Troy, used the DraftKings accounted registered to Vincent Bruce to place 66 bets totaling $715 between February and November 2022. He made eight bets on Iowa sporting events, including two football games in which he played,
- Johnson, a walk-on receiver, made 480 bets totaling over $2,500 with DraftKings between September 2021 and January 2023. Of the bets, about 380 totaling $1,800 were made before he was of legal age. All were on an account registered under the name of his mother, Jill Johnson,
- O’Brien was a student assistant prior to becoming a graduate assistant in December. O’Brien made 350 wagers totaling over $3,047 with FanDuel between March 2021 and December 2022. All were on an account registered under the name of his mother, Audra O’Brien.”
However, representatives are not named in the fillings. In addition, the first to announce the newest charges was The Des Moines Register.
Iowa State University had no comment:
According to Matthew Weitzel, a spokesperson for Iowa, the aforementioned Iowa university had no comment. He added: “I expected football coach Kirk Ferentz to address the issue at the team’s media day Friday.”
Additionally, in a statement addressing about the university’s awareness of NCAA eligibility violations by few students, Nick Joos, Iowa State’s senior director of athletics, said: “Since becoming aware of potential NCAA eligibility issues related to sports wagering by several of our student-athletes back in May, Iowa State University has been actively working to address these issues with the involved student-athletes, and that process remains ongoing. We will continue to support our student-athletes as our compliance staff works with the NCAA to sort out questions surrounding their future eligibility for athletics competition.”