The FBI has teamed up with the NCAA to combat sexual exploitation schemes targeting college athletes.
Collegiate sporting stars’ private images are increasingly found and targeted online in an era when they use their name, image and likeness to enhance their own marketability.
The FBI said hackers can steal images, then post or sell them, which can lead to sextortion, in which athletes can be harassed, stalked or even have the content that’s stolen from them posted on their own social media pages.
Athletes have also reportedly been victimized by the use of AI to doctor images to create sexual content.
Images taken through hacking athletes’ private content or AI-generated are said to have often been used to blackmail the college stars in return for keeping them offline.
While the FBI has launched an investigation into the exploitation, the bureau has also teamed up with the NCAA – the national college sports governing body – to provide support for those athletes victimized by the schemes.
The FBI has teamed up with the NCAA to combat sexual exploitation schemes against college athletes. Pictured: FBI director Kash Patel
The NCAA is helping to raise awareness of the schemes among student athletes. Pictured: NCAA President Charlie Baker
The FBI, which unveiled the collaboration Monday, said bad actors typically target athletes through phishing, and also by password and PIN targeting and by portraying themselves as social media customer service representatives with urgent requests to reset passwords.
‘Athletes have large social media followings, expanded further by NIL activities that not only increases the exposure for targeting, it increases the leverage vendors believe they hold to expose them,’ said Shohini Sinha, assistant director of the FBI Victim Services Division.
‘There is a pressure to protect the clean image of their school, team and themselves.’
Neither the NCAA nor the FBI had specific numbers of athletes who were victimized by sextortion plots.
‘If we can play even a small role in preventing these crimes or getting justice or appropriate support for the people impacted by them, we will do everything we can to help,’ NCAA Vice President of Enforcement Jon Duncan said.
While the NCAA is not partnering with the FBI in an investigative capacity, it is helping towards educating athletes and raising awareness of the threat of sexual exploitation.
It will also offer counseling, information and support for athletes who have been victimized as part of a pre-existing anti-harassment campaign.
The organization will also act as an informational liaison to the FBI, having previously established campus administrator and coach relationships that could help athletes to be more forthcoming with information.
In March 2025, former Michigan offensive coordinator Matt Weiss was charged with hacking and accused by federal prosecutors of stealing thousands of private, intimate images of student-athletes. Weiss pleaded not guilty to all 24 charges.
However, according to Sports Illustrated, the criminal case against the football assistant coach was not a catalyst for the federal investigation.
