College basketball’s 30 biggest cheaters that tainted the game

5. Boston College’s point shavers

We’ve hit our final point shavers of this list, and they may be the most notorious college basketball has ever seen. This group played for Boston College in the late ’70s, becoming so infamous that a 30 for 30 film was made about the scheme.

The plot started with a pair of Pittsburgh based gamblers, Rocco and Anthony Perla. The Perla brothers had a connection to the Eagles through forward Rick Kuhn, who was a high school friend of Rocco.

The trio worked together to pick games on Boston College’s schedule where Kuhn could get other players to manipulate the point spread. Kuhn would receive a cash bonus, usually around $2,500 if he can help ensure the Eagles didn’t cover the spread.

More Boston College players were recruited into the scheme, which eventually expanded to include members of the mob, who threatened players with physical violence if they failed to live up to their end of the bargain. A lot of money ended up changing hands, but the scheme was exposed when one of the mafia associates involved was caught in an FBI sting.

The mob associate, Henry Hill, became a whistleblower and ratted out everyone involved, leading to a string of arrests and convictions. Kuhn spent 28 months in prison for his role in the conspiracy while Tony and Rocco Perla served 10 and four years, respectively.