By James Sutherland on SwimSwam
The NCAA Division I Council is expected to vote on a proposal that would allow NCAA members to vote on professional sports later this week.
According to Sports Illustrated (SI)‘s Pat Forde, the Division I Board of Directors laid the groundwork for the rule change in April, and they voted 21-1 in favor of directing the D1 Council to “adopt legislation to deregulate the prohibition on wagering on professional sports.”
The Board of Directors also “directed the NCAA staff to develop concepts for the appropriate committees to consider regarding a safe harbor, limited immunity or reduced penalties for student-athletes who engage in sports wagering but seek help for problem gambling,” according to SI’s Forde.
Currently, NCAA athletes, coaches and staff members can not gamble on pro sports that are also sponsored by the NCAA, including football, basketball, baseball, hockey, golf and tennis. If the rule change were to go through, NCAA athletes would still be prohibited from gambling on college sports.
If passed by the D1 Council, the proposal would then be voted on by the D2 and D3 Councils in July, though Forde reported on Monday that the proposal is expected to face some resistance from the 35-member D1 Council this week.
“It’s been hotly debated,” one source familiar with the discussions told Forde. “This is not a slam dunk.”
Gambling as a mental health issue is one aspect that’s reportedly come up in the debate.
Those in favor of removing the ban on sports betting believe that education on addictive gambling should be prioritized over penalizing athletes. “The hope is that gambling addicts would be more willing to admit a wagering problem and seek help if they weren’t afraid of losing eligibility for betting on pro sports,” Forde wrote Monday.
One source said: “One of the big things that’s not really being tracked is gambling as a mental-health issue. We should be helping people instead of whacking them with ineligibility.”
Last August, the Notre Dame men’s swimming program was suspended for the 2024-25 season after an investigation found “numerous violations of NCAA rules prohibiting gambling on intercollegiate swimming and other athletic competitions,” though it’s unclear if any of the gambling was done on professional sports.
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