Four former Alabama Statemen’s basketball players have been ruled permanently ineligible by the NCAA for accepting payments from gamblers to fix the outcome of a game, college sports’ governing body announced on Friday, June 5.

According to the NCAA, the four athletes — Amarr Knox, Shawn Fulcher, Corey Hines and Tony Madlock — accepted and were paid a total of $2,000 (or $500 per player) from two bettors to partake in game manipulation in the Hornets’ Dec. 5, 2024 matchup against Southern Miss. Alabama State lost, 81-64, in a game in which they were a six-point underdog.

Knox, Hines and Matlock were the Hornets’ top three scorers that season, with each player averaging at least 12.5 points per game.

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That squad ultimately advanced to the 2025 NCAA Tournament, where it earned the first March Madness victory in program history in a 70-68 win against Saint Francis in a play-in game. Knox scored the winning basket in that game with a layup with one second remaining.

None of the four former Alabama State athletes played during the 2025-26 season.

The NCAA said its enforcement staff had been notified by Temple in July 2025 that Hines, who had transferred there from Alabama State after the 2024-25 season, was contacted by the FBI and shown text messages concerning a sports integrity issue from his time with the Hornets.

The two bettors were indicted in January by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania on wire fraud and bribery charges related to sports contests. Knox told NCAA investigators that Fulcher had put other teammates in a group chat in December 2024 with one of the bettors, who offered them money to throw the game against Southern Miss the next night.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY Sports: NCAA bans four former Alabama State basketball players for game manipulation