Key Takeaways
- Division I Administrative Committee approved legislation allowing college athletes and athletic staff to wager on professional sports leagues including the NFL, NBA, MLB, and NHL
- The rule change requires approval from Division II and III committees, expected to vote by month’s end, before taking effect November 1
- All NCAA prohibitions on betting on college sports remain in place, along with bans on sharing competition information with bettors
- Three men’s basketball players received permanent eligibility bans in September for point shaving and betting on their own games
- Federal investigations into game fixing and point manipulation across multiple Division I programs are ongoing and approaching the indictment stage
What Changed and What Didn’t
The NCAA Division I Administrative Committee voted Wednesday to remove restrictions that prevented college athletes, coaches, and athletic department staff from betting on professional sports. Under the previous rule, members of college athletics programs could not wager on professional sports that the NCAA also sponsors, including football, basketball, hockey, baseball, golf, and tennis.
If approved by Division II and III later this month, athletes will be able to place legal bets on games in the NFL, NBA, Major League Baseball, NHL, and other professional leagues starting November 1.
The change does not affect existing prohibitions. Athletes, coaches, and staff remain banned from betting on any college sports or sharing information about college competitions with bettors. The NCAA also maintains its ban on sports betting advertising and sponsorships during NCAA championships.
“The Administrative Committee was clear in its discussion today that it remains concerned about the risks associated with all forms of sports gambling but ultimately voted to reduce restrictions on student-athletes in this area to better align with their campus peers,” said Josh Whitman, athletics director at Illinois and chair of the committee. “This change allows the NCAA, the conferences, and the member schools to focus on protecting the integrity of college games while, at the same time, encouraging healthy habits for student-athletes who choose to engage in betting activities on professional sports.”
The Path to Approval and Remaining Steps
The Division I Board of Directors laid groundwork for the rule change in April with a 21-1 vote in favor, forwarding it to the Division I Council. According to sources, the 35-member Council showed greater resistance in June, with concerns that professional sports betting could serve as a gateway to betting on college sports, including athletes wagering on their own teams.
The NCAA Student-Athlete Advisory Committee provided crucial support for the measure, advocating for enhanced education and support programs focused on problem gambling prevention.
Virginia Tech President Tim Sands, a member of the Division I Board of Directors, stated the change reflects a broader deregulation effort. “Division I members are actively working to deregulate NCAA rules where possible, and the Division I Board of Directors remains focused on preserving rules that directly speak to the fairness of college sports competition,” Sands said. “While NCAA members do not encourage student-athletes to engage in sports betting behaviors of any kind, the timing is right to modernize these rules by removing prohibitions against betting on professional sports and focusing on harm reduction strategies.”
Enforcement Resources Redirected to High-Risk Cases
As legal sports betting expanded to 39 states, campus compliance staffs and the NCAA national office faced mounting caseloads processing relatively small-scale violations involving professional sports wagers. The change aims to free enforcement resources to focus on threats that directly compromise competitive integrity.
“The enforcement staff continues to investigate and resolve cases involving sports betting quickly but thoroughly,” said Jon Duncan, NCAA vice president of enforcement. “Enforcement staff are investigating a significant number of cases that are specifically relevant to the NCAA’s mission of fair competition, and our focus will remain on those cases and those behaviors that impact the integrity of college sports most directly.”
The NCAA revised its gambling penalties two years ago, creating a sliding scale for suspensions based on wager amounts. After Iowa and Iowa State athletes were caught in a 2023 sports wagering investigation, Division I conference commissioners requested the NCAA compare its policies with those of U.S. professional leagues and Olympic sports governing bodies.
Active Investigations and Recent Sanctions
In September, the NCAA announced permanent eligibility bans for three men’s basketball players, two from Fresno State and one from San José State, for point shaving and betting on their own games during the 2024-25 season. The NCAA Committee on Infractions found that Mykell Robinson, Steven Vasquez, and Jalen Weaver bet on one another’s games, provided information to enable others to bet, and manipulated their performances to ensure certain bets won, sharing thousands of dollars in payouts.
The following day, the NCAA disclosed it is pursuing infractions cases involving 13 former players from six schools: Eastern Michigan, Temple, Arizona State, New Orleans, North Carolina A&T, and Mississippi Valley State. The players were not publicly named as the infractions process continues. All cases involve what the NCAA characterizes as “integrity concerns,” meaning point shaving, game fixing, or individual performance manipulation.
Sources familiar with the cases indicate some are overlapping in nature, involve third parties from outside the institutions, and represent a coordinated effort by a group of individuals to fix games across the sport.
Federal and NCAA investigations remain ongoing regarding game fixing in men’s college basketball. The 2024 arrests of several men connected to former NBA player Jontay Porter manipulating his performances widened into a probe of multiple college games and teams. In August, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania advanced its investigation of point shaving and game fixing in college basketball, conducting interviews with players suspected of manipulating their performances for gamblers. The probe is believed to be heading toward the indictment stage.
Several Division I men’s basketball teams suspended or dismissed players during the 2024-25 season in disciplinary actions related to either betting on college games, including their own, or manipulating performances for wagering purposes, according to sources.
Strategic Implications
The rule change represents a calculated shift in NCAA enforcement strategy. By removing prohibitions on professional sports betting, the association aims to concentrate limited compliance resources on violations that directly threaten the integrity of college competition.
The approach acknowledges a practical reality: enforcing rules against professional sports betting has become increasingly difficult as legal wagering spreads across college campuses. With sports betting now legal in 39 states and commonplace among college students, the previous prohibition created a compliance burden that diverted attention from more serious threats.
Whether this strategy succeeds depends on two factors. First, whether removing restrictions on professional sports betting reduces the overall compliance burden as intended. Second, whether the NCAA can effectively detect and deter the integrity violations it now prioritizes, particularly as federal investigations suggest coordinated game-fixing schemes may be more widespread than previously known.
The expected approval by Division II and III committees later this month will determine whether the rule takes effect November 1, fundamentally reshaping the NCAA’s approach to regulating gambling within college athletics.
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