The NCAA’s decision to allow college athletes bet on professional sports is on hold after backlash from SEC commissioner Greg Sankey and swelling integrity concerns following recent NBA betting scandals.
The Division I Board of Directors voted Tuesday to delay the rule’s effective date to Nov. 22, one day after the close of a 30-day rescission period that allows Division I schools to formally oppose the change. The pause came days after Sankey urged NCAA president Charlie Baker to rescind the policy altogether, calling it “a major step in the wrong direction.”
The NCAA finalized the rule last week, a day before the FBI suddenly announced indictments against current NBA players and coaches ,which has intensified betting concerns from Capitol Hill to NBA locker rooms.
The indictments also involve figures tied to ongoing NCAA basketball investigations, which Sankey pointed to in warning that the line between professional and college wagering “has never been thinner.”
Sankey: NCAA sending wrong signal
Betting on college sports or sharing inside information remain strictly prohibited under the rule change, which has been in place since long before the widespread legalization of sports betting. The NCAA has framed it as a harm-reduction strategy that will free up its enforcement team focus on integrity threats like point-shaving and game manipulation.
SEC presidents and chancellors were “clear and united” in opposing the new policy during an Oct. 13 conference meeting, Sankey wrote in his two-page letter.
“The integrity of competition is directly threatened when anyone with insider access becomes involved in gambling,” Sankey wrote. “The NCAA’s policy has long stood as an expression of our collective integrity, and its removal sends the wrong signal at a time when the gambling industry is expanding its reach and influence.”
He added that any issues with the previous ban should be addressed through “careful refinement — not through wholesale removal of the guardrails that have long supported the integrity of games.”
The reversal exposes athletes to heightened risk of exploitation, Sankey added, warning “what might begin as casual betting can quickly spiral into something far more serious.”
Pushback follows broader concerns
The timing of the SEC’s opposition underscores how sensitive gambling policy has become inside college sports. The FBI’s recent indictment tied to alleged NBA betting violations reinforced long-standing fears about manipulation and insider information, the same issues the NCAA says the change is meant to help it address.
In September, three men’s basketball players from Fresno State and San José State were permanently banned for manipulating their own performance in a prop-betting scheme. The NCAA is investigating at least 13 more athletes across six schools for similar violations.
The association says its enforcement staff monitors more than 22,000 college events per year for unusual betting activity, with a growing share of cases “directly impacting the integrity of college sports.”
Rule change may be complicated
Sankey noted that while individual conferences or schools can impose stricter local rules, he urged the NCAA to restore a uniform national standard prohibiting athletes and staff from all forms of wagering.
“The SEC’s presidents and chancellors believe the NCAA should restore its prior policy, or a modified version, reaffirming a prohibition on gambling by student-athletes and athletics staff,” Sankey wrote.
