Athletics Veritas is a weekly series aimed at helping higher education executives, faculty, and other stakeholders stay tuned in on trending national issues impacting college athletics, especially NCAA Division I. Athletics Veritas is created by senior DI athletic administrators around the nation.
The Spread of Legalized Sports Gambling:
The fix to fund state budget shortfalls and capital projects? Maybe. An invitation to fix college games? Let's hope not.
Executive Summary
The number of states legalizing gambling on college sports is on the rise
The NCAA is maintaining its opposition of all forms of sports wagering
The health and safety of student-athletes remains in focus with the proliferation of legalized sports wagering at the state level
The potential revenue from legalized sports wagering is helping states fund capital projects to state employee benefits and state pension liabilities
With the Kansas City Chiefs remarkable come-back in Super Bowl LIV on Sunday, one can only imagine the hysteria emanating from sports books across the country as the Chiefs rolled off three straight touchdowns in frenetic fashion to close out the NFL’s biggest game.
But beyond the traditional Super Bowl bets coming out of Las Vegas this time of year, odds are you have heard sports gambling in America--including betting on college sports--became markedly easier and more accessible thanks to SCOTUS.
The Legal Sports Report indicates that, as of January 2020, 13 states operate legalized and regulated sports gambling operations with several more states adopting similar bills in 2019. That number will likely increase as many other states consider pending bills or plans to introduce bills in their upcoming legislative sessions. A real-time accounting of all 50 states' position on legalizing sports wagering can be found here.
As states continue to embrace the revenue pipeline that sports wagering promises, where does the NCAA stand on this quickly changing landscape?
The NCAA's long-standing position on sports wagering is to stay a million miles away from it. In fact, a long-held NCAA championships-hosting policy was to not permit any round of NCAA championships (e.g., March Madness) to be held in states where sports gambling was legal. That position is undergoing a necessary defrost as the sports wagering legalization spreads to so many states that awarding the opportunity to host NCAA championships could not happen without overlapping in to states with legalized sports wagering.
From an NCAA rule book perspective, faculty athletics representatives, presidents and chancellors, student-athletes, coaches, and other athletics department staff, among others, are all prohibited from sports gambling -- and the scope of application goes like this:
"The prohibition against sports wagering applies to any institutional practice or any competition (intercollegiate, amateur or professional) in a sport in which the Association conducts championship competition, in bowl subdivision football and in emerging sports for women."
How far do the NCAA sports wagering restrictions go? Gambling on the 2020 Australian Open women’s tennis finals or a high school boys hoops game are prohibited for a student-athlete at an NCAA school because the NCAA sponsors championships in those sports (tennis, basketball). On the flip side, a student-athlete at an NCAA school dropping a $10 bet on a heavyweight boxing match in Las Vegas or the Preakness in Baltimore are permissible bets that will not compromise the student-athlete's eligibility or cause an NCAA violation. Why no NCAA issue? The NCAA does not sponsor championships in pugilism and horse-racing.
The NCAA leadership has not budged on its sports wagering refrain either. NCAA President Mark Emmert projected the pitfalls to come as sports gambling becomes more pervasive. Many agree that student-athlete health and well-being and the overall integrity of competition could be threatened. The interest in injury reporting at the college athletics level will heighten in spades, too, as more money flows in to sports betting where the gambling-public is looking for an informational-edge (e.g., inside scoop on a star player's injury). The integrity of the competitions and the protection of customer data are two priorities at all levels of sports gambling, including wagers tied to college sports.
From a campus perspective, surveys of NCAA student-athletes' behaviors and attitudes toward sports wagering reveal a level of interest and popularity among student-athletes to bet on sports, although at relatively low stakes. Some Division I institutions are taking a proactive, albeit increasingly restrictive, approach to addressing concerns around college sports gambling. One institution recently announced it is prohibiting all university board members, faculty, staff, students, and contractors from betting on the institution’s sports teams or individual student-athletes. This institutional policy goes beyond the scope of who the NCAA restricts from sports wagering. Other Division I institutions have announced similar steps for its campus stakeholders.
And then there is the cash flow coming back to the states. For states that have or will soon legalize sports wagering, where will this newfound revenue go? A variety of uses await the influx of revenue. States are deploying current and future sports wagering revenue to fund everything from community college capital projects to public employees’ medical insurance funds to unfunded state pension liabilities.
Will the fusion of college sports and gambling in America invite both new revenue and newfound uncertainties? That is almost a sure bet.
Athletics Veritas is presented for information purposes only and should not be considered advice or counsel on NCAA compliance matters. For guidance on NCAA rules and processes, always consult your university’s athletics compliance office, conference office, and/or the NCAA.
