[stevenash]

By Ari Wasserman
The Athletic


The NCAA’s previous rules policing sports wagering were implemented before gambling became interwoven into sports culture.

Those old rules meant a 21-year-old college basketball player could lose one full season of eligibility or more for betting $50 on a Cincinnati Bengals “Monday Night Football” game from in his apartment. Just ask Alan Tisdale about this.

Such a harsh penalty was so out of touch that the NCAA realized it needed to refresh the rulebook. On Wednesday, the Division I Council approved new reinstatement guidelines for players who commit sports gambling violations.

Before we get into the changes, let’s be clear on one thing: These rules are reasonable. It’s really fun to pick on the NCAA for some of its nonsensical or unenforceable rules, but this isn’t the time for that.

There are certain sacrifices that come with being a college athlete, and not gambling is one of them. Also, these young athletes will have the rest of their lives to lose money gambling on the NBA if they want.


And while I believe a player should be able to bet on a pro sport from his or her cell phone, I’m willing to acknowledge that gambling can lead some people down a destructive path.

The NCAA had to come up with new, clearly defined rules that allowed for some nuance other than slamming everyone with severe, sometimes-crippling penalties. People are still going to gamble, but these new rules acknowledge that not all gambling should be treated equally.

Let’s get into it.

• Student-athletes who do anything to influence the outcomes of their own games or provide information to others involved with betting will permanently lose college eligibility in all sports. This rule also applies to athletes who wager on their own games or other sports at their schools.

My take: Who argues with this? The thing that could hurt a sport the most is questioning whether the results are fixed. Wagering on your own sport or betting on games your friends are playing has to come with a no-tolerance policy. In a world where everyone disagrees with everything, I’m not sure this is going to be that controversial of a rule.

• If a college athlete bets on their own sport involving other schools, they must take education on sports wagering rules and prevention while losing 50 percent of one season of eligibility.

My take: Fair. I cover enough high school football recruiting to know that a player who goes to State U often knows half of the roster at State Tech. Recruits become very friendly with one another and maintain those relationships even if they attend different schools. You shouldn’t be gambling on your own sport, and the penalty for doing so should be considerable.

• For all other betting-related violations — namely betting on professional sports — the cumulative dollar amount of those wagers will be taken into account before a penalty is issued.

• $200 or less: sports wagering rules and prevention education.
• $201-$500: loss of 10 percent of a season of eligibility, plus rules and prevention education.
• $501-$800: loss of 20 percent of a season of eligibility, plus rules and prevention education.
• Greater than $800: loss of 30 percent of a season of eligibility, plus rules and prevention education.
• Totals that “greatly” exceed $800: The NCAA reinstatement staff can consider the additional loss of eligibility — including permanent ineligibility — if necessary.

My take: It was smart for the NCAA to consider amounts bet. If wagering is being done and the cumulative bet totals are for an insignificant amount of money, the likelihood of something nefarious going on is much less. Yes, a rule is a rule, and there needs to be penalties for breaking it, but we all also understand that we shouldn’t take away an entire year’s worth of eligibility from a student for placing a small three-team parlay on Major League Baseball in July. Context and nuance haven’t always been present when it comes to the NCAA’s rules and the enforcement of those rules, but creating a tiered system in which we take dollar amounts into consideration allows for more nuance in the penalty phase.

“These new guidelines modernize penalties for college athletes at a time when sports wagering has been legalized in dozens of states and is easily accessible nationwide with online betting platforms,” said Alex Ricker-Gilbert, Jacksonville’s athletic director and the chair of the D1 legislative committee. “While sports wagering by college athletes is still a concern — particularly as we remain committed to preserving the integrity of competition in college sports — consideration of mitigating factors is appropriate as staff prescribe penalties for young people who have made mistakes in this space.”

“Mistakes” is the correct word.

Any time a college athlete gambles on sports, it is a mistake. Athletic departments should make it painfully clear to players that they shouldn’t even download gambling apps.

DraftKings and other gambling companies spend hundreds of millions of dollars advertising. That isn’t being done by accident. They know people will eventually give in, so college programs have to allocate an appropriate amount of time to make sure college athletes understand the gravity of the situation.

We’re not far enough removed from the Alabama baseball scandal or the news of gambling allegations concerning multiple athletes across multiple sports at Iowa State and Iowa to shake our heads in annoyance at the NCAA. There needed to be clear, concise and reasonable rules in place for every athlete to follow. These are reasonable.

The NCAA messes a lot of things up.

This isn’t one of them.

[LongBall52]

So we can all rest assured they would never bet with an illegal bookie. At least this is something in the right direction.

[Snowball]

I only like the first rule.

Then, I believe it is against their rights as Americans not to be able to bet on other teams in the same sport, but I can still see an undue advantage. So a pass on that, BUT -- not allowing them to bet AT ALL on unrelated pro sports? That really does infringe on their rights. So, to them, basically it's like sports betting isn't legal again, so there will still be shady happenings with the illegal gambling operations anyway.