The NCAA defines a “wager” as “any agreement in which an individual or entity agrees to give up an item of value (e.g., cash, shirt, dinner) in exchange for the possibility of gaining another item of value.”

Sports wagering includes placing, accepting or soliciting a wager (on a staff member's or student-athlete's own behalf or on the behalf of others) of any type with any individual or organization on any intercollegiate, amateur or professional team or contest. 

Examples of sports wagering include, but are not limited to, the use of a bookmaker or parlay card, Internet sports wagering, auctions in which bids are placed on teams, individuals or contests, and pools or fantasy leagues in which an entry fee is required and there is an opportunity to win a prize.

The scope of this NCAA rule applies to student-athletes, coaches and athletics administrative staff, as well as non-athletics department staff members who have responsibilities within or over the athletics department (e.g., president, faculty athletics representative, individual to whom athletics reports). Some institutions have decreed that no university staff member (including those with zero involvement with or oversight of, Athletics) may wager on any of the school's teams, student-athletes, or coaches---a reach exceeding the NCAA bylaws. 

From a green-light/red-light standpoint as NCAA rules go, it would be impermissible to wager on bowl games (football), March Madness (basketball), NBA Finals (pro basketball), U.S. Open (tennis), the Masters (golf), your local high school football rivalry, and/or the Olympics because those are sports, or multi-sport events, for which the NCAA sponsors championships and/or bowl games. 

The NCAA's sports wagering restriction remains applicable to a student-athlete from the point they trigger student-athlete status (e.g., enrolling full-time; receiving athletics aid) to the point the student-athlete has exhausted their eligibility. 

Interestingly, the NCAA issued a rules interpretation in 1990 clarifying that athletics department staff members may not participate in radio or TV shows if that participation is related to point spreads and/or their participation is focused on predicting the outcome of games. The sentiment underlying that position from 30 years ago will be tested as the proliferation of conference broadcast networks (e.g., ACC, Big Ten, SEC) and the sports wagering worlds increasingly collide.