by Auburn quarterback Payton Thorne also faced criticism from another quarter after losing to California: angry sports bettors.
Thorne said on The Next Round podcast that he’s heard from some fans personally and through social media, while others “reach out to you on Venmo, all kinds of things.”
“They’re absolutely not sending any money,” 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, nobody ever says they want to pay the money.”
Thorne completed 14 of 27 passes for 165 yards and a touchdown against Cal. One of his four interceptions led to the Golden Bears’ go-ahead touchdown early in the second quarter.
The NCAA reported in May that one in three high-profile athletes received abusive messages from people interested in betting, citing a study by artificial intelligence service Signify Group during the NCAA men’s and women’s basketball tournaments.
Signify found that athletes received more than 540 abusive messages related to betting during the tournaments. Of the 1,000 Division I basketball players, 280 coaches and 120 NCAA game officials, more than 54,000 messages or comments were flagged and 4,000 were confirmed as abusive or threatening.
The NCAA has urged states where betting on sporting events is legal to ban prop bets on college athletes.
Prop bets, short for proposition bets, allow gamblers to bet on statistics a player collects during a match rather than on the final score.
As for Thorne, Auburn coach Hugh Freeze did not rule out replacing him as the starter with backup Hank Brown against New Mexico. Freeze said he didn’t like the idea of benching players who have consistently been the best in practice, but that he would make a decision later in the week.
“That being said, you know, you’ve got to take that into the games,” Freeze said. “You’ve got to. I saw (Thorne) play some really good football in some big games last year. We also saw the opposite in some games.”
Thorne has thrown for 487 yards and five touchdowns in two games. He is also second on the team with 92 rushing yards, including two scores.
