Oklahoma debuted at No. 18 in the preseason AP Top-25 poll released on Monday, and there are reasons for Sooners fans to be optimistic about the season ahead. One of those reasons? Incoming transfer quarterback John Mateer. After putting up impressive numbers for Washington State last season, Mateer followed offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle and quarterbacks coach John Kuceyeski to Norman.
However, Sooners fans are now discussing Venmo transactions and sports gambling, rather than those lofty expectations.
According to college football insider Pete Thamel, Oklahoma is reviewing a series of Venmo transactions from Mateer from 2022 that reference “sports gambling,” with one such transaction specifically noting a game: The 2022 contest between UCLA and USC, won by the Trojans with a final score of 48-45.
Both teams were ranked inside the Top 20 at the time of that game, which came when Mateer was a redshirt freshman:
Here are the two transactions at issue:
Mateer has issued a response, claiming the descriptions are an inside joke among his friends:
There are a few possibilities here.
First, let’s assume this is actually Mateer’s account for a moment.
One possibility, and the one that seems most likely, is that Mateer was joking around with those references on Venmo. Anyone who has used that app to send money to a friend has probably put something humorous down as a notation before.
A second possibility is that this is not even the quarterback’s Venmo account. That is a possibility raised on X/Twitter Tuesday morning:
Again, who knows if that is true, but it is also a possibility.
A third possibility? That is Mateer’s account, he was gambling on sports and to the dismay of Stringer Bell decided to take notes on said activity.
Given all the education that student athletes are presented with regarding sports betting, this seems a rather implausible scenario.
What a time to be alive, or something.
