NCAA betting penalties for players who wager on games not involving their own team could change.
The governing body issued a statement on Wednesday outlining the proposed changes for NCAA sports betting infractions.
According to the statement:
“The Committee on Student-Athlete Reinstatement is expected to complete its review and finalize recommendations by mid-October, with a final Council Coordination Committee vote on updated guidelines to occur at the end of October. The guidelines potentially could be applied retroactively.”
New NCAA betting penalties proposed
The current concepts under consideration include:
- On a first offense, eliminate penalties that result in student-athletes being withheld from competition — regardless of the dollar value of the wagers and including bets placed on other sports at a student-athlete’s school — and require education on sports wagering rules and prevention.
- On a second offense, potentially involve withholding penalties, depending on the dollar value of the bet(s) in question.
- On a third or subsequent offense, resulting penalty could be a loss of one full season of eligibility.
President on NCAA betting proposal
NCAA president Charlie Baker commented on the proposal:
“We continue to put student-athlete well-being front and center in the Association’s efforts around sports wagering, including this week’s action related to reconsideration of penalties that members believe have been overly punitive to student-athletes,” Baker said. “This is an important step toward modernizing the NCAA’s approach to sports wagering.
“Included in that updated approach is our plan to advocate through state and federal legislators to reduce harassment of young people from bettors and to increase education efforts to help prevent problem gambling in the student population.”
The NCAA is currently dealing with investigations in Iowa, Cincinnati and Alabama. The governing body previously updated its betting rules in June.
NCAA hoping for more changes
A separate statement Wednesday said the NCAA will “advocate for updating existing state sports betting laws and regulations to protect student-athletes from harassment or coercion, address the negative impacts of problem gambling and protect the integrity of NCAA competition.”
It continued:
“To protect student-athletes from harassment or coercive behavior, the NCAA is advocating for mandatory reporting hotlines for gambling authorities to report such behavior to law enforcement, increased penalties for bettors who harass student-athletes and mandatory education for operators to help identify harassment.
“Additionally, to protect the integrity of competition, states should have regulations identifying prohibited bettors and prohibit individuals younger than 21 from wagering on sports. Any sports wagering advertisement also should include information about the harassment hotline, problem gambling and prohibitions on harassment related to sports wagering. Lastly, revenue generated from sports betting should be allocated in part toward education. To support the higher-risk college student population, including student-athletes.”
