Auburn quarterback Payton Thorne has taken heat from a different source after struggling in a loss to California: Angry sports bettors.
Thorne said on The Next Round podcast that he has heard from some fans in person and on social media while others “hit you up on Venmo, all types of stuff.”
“They’re definitely not sending cash,” said Thorne, who was intercepted four times in the 21-14 upset loss. “It’s funny, when they lose money, they want the money back, but when they win money on the parley, no one’s ever saying they want to pay the money.”
Thorne went 14-of-27 passing for 165 yards and a touchdown against Cal. One of his four picks led to the Golden Bears go-ahead touchdown early in the second quarter.
The NCAA said in May that one in three high-profile athletes received abusive message from those with betting interests, citing a study by artificial intelligence service Signify Group during the NCAA men’s and women’s basketball tourneys.
Signify found that during the tournaments athletes received more than 540 abusive messages related to betting. Out of 1,000 Division I basketball players, 280 coaches and 120 NCAA game officials, more than 54,000 posts or comments were flagged and 4,000 were confirmed as abusive or threatening.
The NCAA has pushed for states with legal wagering on sporting events to ban prop bets on college athletes.
Prop bets — short for proposition bets — allow gamblers to wager on statistics a player will accumulate during a game rather than the final score.
As for Thorne, Auburn coach Hugh Freeze didn’t rule out replacing him as the starter with backup Hank Brown against New Mexico. Freeze said he didn’t like benching players who were consistently the best in practice, but that he would make a decision later in the week.
“Having said that, you know, you have to carry that over into the games,” Freeze said. “You have to. I did witness (Thorne) play really, really good football in some big games last year. We’ve also witnessed the opposite of that in some games.”
Thorne has thrown for 487 yards and five touchdowns through two games. He is also second on the team with 92 rushing yards, including two scores.