NCAA rule change could allow unprecedented athlete gambling

For the first time in NCAA history, players and staff alike may be able to legally gamble on professional sports. 

On October 8, an NCAA committee voted to change a rule which would allow its student athletes and staff to gamble on professional sports starting November 1; however, the ban on gambling for intercollegiate athletics would still be upheld.

 The NCAA Division I cabinet voted first to allow sports betting, and divisions II and III signed off on the new rule two weeks later. Despite these cabinet rulings, SEC commissioner, Greg Sankey, pushed back, citing concerns about athlete integrity and exploitation. After Sankey’s objection, the NCAA pushed back the rule change for another 3 weeks and will vote again on November 22. 

Akron University’s Athletic Director, Dr. Andrew Goodrich, believes that the proposal to change the gambling ban could be to avoid losing players. “ Here’s the question we’re all asking ourselves,” Goodrich said. “ If we make this illegal, and then we find that ten student athletes are participating in illegal gambling, do I have to kick them all off the team?” 

Goodrich said that many intercollegiate leaders he has spoken with are against the concept of gambling in college, but they realize that people may do it anyway. “If we vote to make this illegal, it is incredibly difficult to prevent it from happening, and if it does happen a lot on your campus, there’s incredible risks, not just to the student athletes, but to the universities as well,” Goodrich explained. “For that reason, they’re saying, listen, I might get in a lot of trouble with this, so let’s just make it legal.”

Goodrich also expressed concerns about potential habits forming for his athletes. “We send young people to college for a purpose, and that is to get an education, in a place that’s safe, a place where you make mistakes,” Goodrich said. “But when you make the type of mistakes that include gambling, those can be long term mistakes.” Raven Lewis, from the Ohio Gambling Helpline, said that some of the most common mistakes that young people make when gambling is the mismanagement of their funds. “I always advise that people should set a limit,” Lewis said. “I hear all the time about young people blowing all of their money on bets, and having nothing to fall back on.”

Online sports gambling has spiked in popularity after its legalization in 2018. Prior to then, sports gambling was illegal in most of the United States, with the exception of Nevada, as a result of the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act in 1992. Today, well over 30 states have fully legalized sports betting, and as of 2023, sports gambling in its entirety has generated just under $20 billion, with $11.2 billion coming from online sports bets. Although there has been a gradual increase in sports betting participation, about 43% of American adults say sports betting is bad for society, and 40% of them say that it is bad for sports specifically, according to Pew Research Center.

As of 2024, ten percent of all bets in the United States were placed by the 20-24 age group. Hunter Hopperton, a 22-year-old football player at Kent State, says that he is not too worried about the potential gambling rule change. “As long as they aren’t gambling on college sports, I think it will be fine,” Hopperton said. “I think that things could get messy if they have insider information though.” The insider information that Hopperton is referring to is placing bets based on information that one may know through professional connections, or knowledge of the sport. 

 In a 2023 survey, the NCAA found that nearly 67 percent of all college students are wagering on sports events. Goodrich says that he is concerned about potential financial decisions that could devastate athletes around the country, and that his experience as a student athlete contributes to his concerns. “Listen, I was a college baseball player, but I did need to be able to pay my rent at the end of the month,” he said. “If you make mistakes with gambling, you might not be able to pay your rent at the end of the month, and you could end up living in your car for all you know,” Goodrich said. 

Lewis said that accessibility is a concerning effect of online gambling. “For young people, I think they have accessibility whenever they want,” Lewis said. “You used to have to go to casinos to place bets.” George Sell, a student athlete at Wake Forest University, says that he is also concerned about  potential habits being formed. “Its all so new to us at this age,” Sell said. “I think it is dangerous because it is right on our phones, and you can place bets from anywhere. Then you factor in all the ways they [the sportsbooks] give you boosts to bet with, I think it can hurt people if they aren’t careful.” 

Goodrich says that another concern is the ability to go from gambling on pro sports as a student athlete to playing professional sports. “Lets say you are a very successful intercollegiate athlete. Then you move to the pro level,” he said. “Well, the pros can’t gamble on pro sports, but you’ve already been gambling on pro sports. At what point do you make that change and go cold turkey?”

With the vote approaching within the next few days, there are still questions about whether or not it will pass. “I really don’t know, and trust me, this is not easy,” Goodrich said. “I think theoretically, you can be against it, but logistically saying, I can’t paint myself into a corner where I’m going to get in trouble because it appears this is pretty ubiquitous across the country.” 

Goodrich said there are still conversations being had, and there are still details that need figured out. “So will it get passed? I don’t know. We will all find out together.”