The NCAA will not allow its student-athletes to bet on professional sports after all.
The governing body of college sports announced that its Division I member schools voted to rescind an approved rule change that would have lifted the ban on student-athletes wagering on pro sports.
The NCAA’s protocols allow DI schools to vote on whether to rescind an approved rule change within 30 days of the vote approving the role, if a proposal did not receive at least 75% of votes from the DI Board. In late October, the board voted to adopt the proposal, but with fewer than 75% of the votes.
The lack of votes gave DI member institutions the chance to choose to repeal the change, and two-thirds of the schools voted last week against lifting the NCAA’s ban on pro sports betting. CNN reported that the NCAA hit the threshold of votes needed to rescind the rule just 30 minutes before the deadline on Nov. 21.
Proposed change met pushback
The NCAA considered a change of stance regarding pro sports betting as its bylaws “were written and adopted at a time when sports gambling was largely illegal nationwide,” said University of Illinois Athletics Director Josh Whitman earlier this year.
The DI Administrative Committee voted to adopt the proposal in October. A rule change also requires approval from committees in Division II and Division III, with both committees voting to adopt the proposal. The NCAA considered the rule changes as it prohibited sports wagering by all student-athletes, coaches and team officials on events sponsored by the organization.
“Because sports betting rules are common legislation, the ban on all forms of betting — for sports in which the NCAA sponsors a championship — will remain in place for all three NCAA divisions,” said the NCAA.
However, the proposed rule change received pushback from several key stakeholders in college sports, including SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey. Sankey sent a letter to NCAA President Charlie Baker requesting that the rule change be rescinded. Pittsburgh football head coach Pat Narduzzi also opposed the rule change.
Recent NCAA gambling infractions
The decision to abandon the idea of letting student-athletes bet on pro sports comes amid several gambling-related incidents. Last week, an NCAA investigation found that former Temple University men’s basketball player Hysier Miller wagered on pro and college sports, including Temple.
Miller was deemed permanently ineligible by the NCAA, while two other Temple men’s basketball staffers also violated NCAA gambling rules by placing impermissible bets.
The NCAA also uncovered gambling violations by six men’s basketball players at three separate schools, with none of the athletes currently enrolled at the institutions. The probe came after the NCAA handed lifetime bans to three former Fresno State men’s basketball players and three Eastern Michigan student-athletes. The men’s basketball players at Eastern Michigan failed to cooperate with the NCAA’s probe into gambling infractions.
