A month ago, it looked college athletes being allowed to wager on professional sports was a layup, but the Division I schools just blocked it in a stunning reversal.
Two-thirds of Division I schools voted Friday to rescind the sports betting rule change that it had adopted in October, the NCAA said.
The rules prohibiting student athletes from betting on pro sports will remain in place.
The NCAA had been weighing a monumental change to its betting rules that would have allowed college athletes and staff to bet on professional sports.
The news receive pushback from notable voices like Charles Barkley, who said proponents of the rule change “should have their head examined.”
The rule change was supposed to go into effect on Nov. 1 if all three divisions agreed to it.
According to ESPN, SEC commissioner Greg Sankey sent a letter to NCAA president Charlie Baker asking him to rescind the rule change in late October, which prompted to the NCAA to delay the decision by 30 days.
In the time, there have been a number of betting related scandals that have rocked the sports world.
Chauncey Billups, Terry Rozier and Damon Jones were all arrested in October, swept up in an NBA betting investigation that even league was apparently not aware was ongoing at the FBI.
Cleveland Guardians pitchers Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz were indicted in November for their alleged roles in an pitch-fixing scheme that dated back to 202, and they face up to 65 years in prison for various fraud, conspiracy and bribery charges.
The NCAA has handed down punishments to several individuals from different schools for betting related infractions this month.
Six players were found to have manipulated games or illegally shared information with bettors in a recent NCAA investigation.
The NCAA also said Friday that three people at Temple University, one now former basketball player, a special assistant to the head coach and a graduate assistant, were found to have wagered improperly on sports, including bets on the Temple men’s basketball team by the now banned player.
While the NCAA did not reference any of those scandals in its recent decision to rescind the rules change, Baker did address the NCAA’s role in trying to prevent similar scandals on the college level in October.
“We are grateful for federal law enforcement’s efforts to stamp out illegal sports betting, and I am proud that the NCAA continues to have the most aggressive competition integrity policies in place,” Baker said following the arrests of NBA personnel.
He added, “we still need more states, regulators and gaming companies to help in this effort by eliminating risky prop bets to reduce opportunities for manipulation.”
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Malik Smith has been immersed in the sports betting industry since 2017. He’s a data nerd with a particular focus on the NBA and combat sports. He spends his weeknights in the winter looking for edges on plus-money NBA player props.
