Essay Sample: 1978–79 Boston College Basketball Point-shaving Scandal

The 1978–79 Boston College basketball point shaving scandal involved a plan in which members of the italian Mafia bribed several Boston College Eagles men's basketball players to ensure the team would not win by the required margin which would allow the gamblers to place wagers against that team and win. The scheme involved a majority of the basketball team and the players would receive a large percentage of the winnings. However, this method would not always work and the members of the mafia would lose a lot of money. Was Boston college score keepers in the wrong for not counting missed layups and free throws during a college basketball game?

A piece of evidence that explains the point shaving scandal and it sums  up the overall case is. “Cronies in Pittsburgh who ran a point-shaving scheme that paid a few players to keep scores within the spread at Boston College during the 1978-79 college basketball season” (McCluskey 1). What this quote means is it explains how game scorekeepers would not count certain baskets and free throws in order for people to win bets and gain a specific amount of money from it via sports betting. In the sports world it is extremely illegal for scorekeepers to do this because of this exact reason. Betters will bet on a game and the game can be determined by one free throw or one rebound. Which in conclusion could cause a lot of people to lose a lot of money on college or professional games. 

A problem that the point shavers and the mafia ran into is that the games didn’t always go in their favor… “The Providence game was played on December 6, 1978, and Boston College was favored to win by six to seven points. Kuhn was thus expected to keep the score below the six- to seven-point margin. The test run for the scheme proved unsuccessful when Boston College's team established an early lead and ultimately won the game by nineteen points” (Encyclopedia 1). This quote shows that Boston college was supposed to keep the score between 6 and 7 points but they ended up winning by 19 and the mobsters were at a big loss and shows that they always did not win the bets and money lines. This would end up causing serious issues between the college players and the monsters because the college players were getting paid a lot of money to help them win.

A third piece of evidence that I found was that the criminals would not always lose the bets either. An example of that is “The scheme's creators lost tens of thousands of dollars on the Holy Cross game, but still came out ahead to the tune of more than $100,000” (ESPN, 1). And this means the mobsters would be profiting hundreds of thousands of dollars by rigging college basketball games and gambling on the money line. The scandal spandead a total of 8 games and it won sports betters thousands of dollars and it lost most thousands of dollars. 

Last piece of evidence that I have found is “The gamblers were expecting a close Boston College win, but the Eagles blew out the Friars 83-64, costing Hill and company big bucks. The days after the Providence game were the most frightening of the entire ordeal for Sweeney” (Purdum 1). And what this quote means is that another quote showing that the point shaving almost didn’t work, the game was supposed to be close and Boston ended up blowing them out. It’s not the gambling that’s illegal, it's the principle of stealing it. Boston College was supposed to keep the score within 7 points that night… However, the coach decided to run up the score and ended up blowing out the other team and ruining the spread for the betters. 

In conclusion the Boston college score keepers were definitely in the wrong for point shaving. Not only did they not keep accurate scores of the games but the keepers would win some people a lot of money just by simply not counting certain stats within the game. The scandal involved parts of the Italian mafia that would pay their players and scorekeepers to keep points in the spread so the members could win games and win hundreds of thousands of dollars. Point shaving is very illegal and anyone who does it will get in a lot of trouble.