The NCAA all but removed its prohibition against gambling on professional sports Wednesday, with the Division I Administrative Committee adopting legislation that would allow athletes to wager on games at the NFL, NBA, Major League Baseball, NHL and other pro levels. The Division II and III committees also must approve the rule change later this month for it to go into effect. That is expected to happen, sources tell Sports Illustrated.
The NCAA prohibition against betting on college sports, and sharing information about college competitions with other bettors, remains in place, the association said in a release. The release also said that the rule change is not an endorsement of sports betting.
“The Administrative Committee was clear in its discussion today that it remains concerned about about the risks associated with all forms of sports gambling but ultimately voted to reduce the restrictions on student-athletes in this area to better align with their campus peers,” Illinois athletic director and committee chair Josh Whitman said in the release. “This allows the NCAA, the conferences, and 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 college sports.”
The rule change picked up crucial support from the NCAA’s Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, which pushed for enhanced support and education in the area of problem gambling prevention.
Before the change, athletes, coaches and staff members could not wager on professional sports that also are sponsored by the NCAA. That includes football, basketball, hockey, baseball, golf and tennis. Prohibitions against gambling on college sports remain in place.
The Division I Board of Directors laid the groundwork for the rule change in April with a 21–1 vote in favor and forwarded it to the D-I Council. However, in June, sources told SI there was greater resistance from members of the 35-person D-I Council. There were concerns that gambling on pro sports would be a gateway to gambling on college sports—including athletes betting on their own sports and teams.
“It’s been hotly debated,” one source familiar with the discussions said at the time.
There is a school of thought that more permissible athlete gambling simply creates more problems, not fewer.
As legalized gambling has spread in the United States, particularly on college campuses, it has outstripped the ability to enforce applicable NCAA rules in some areas. Campus compliance staffs and the NCAA national office have been bogged down dealing with relatively small-scale betting violations on NFL, NBA and MLB across a landscape in which sports wagering is now legal in 39 states and commonplace among college students.
The NCAA reviewed and altered its gambling penalties two years ago, creating a sliding scale for suspensions for impermissible wagering based on the amounts being bet. And after Iowa and Iowa State athletes were caught up in a sports wagering sting operation of sorts in 2023, D-I conference commissioners asked the NCAA to compare its gambling policies with those of U.S. professional leagues and national governing bodies in Olympic sports.
The NCAA and its member schools are focusing on policing wagering that more directly threatens the college athletics product. That starts with integrity—point shaving, game fixing or manipulating individual performances—and extends to pressure and criticism aimed at athletes who cost gamblers money.
Federal and NCAA investigations remain ongoing regarding game fixing in men’s college basketball. The arrests of several men in connection with former NBA player Jontay Porter manipulating his performances last year widened into a probe of multiple college games and teams. In August, SI reported that the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania advanced its probe of point shaving and game fixing in college basketball, conducting interviews with players suspected of manipulating their performances for the benefit of gamblers who wagered on their games. 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 what sources say were disciplinary actions related to either betting on college games (including their own) or manipulating their performances for wagering purposes. In September, the NCAA announced permanent bans for three men’s basketball players, two who competed at Fresno State and one from San José State, for point shaving and impermissible betting on games during the ’24–25 season. The following day, the association said it is pursuing infractions cases involving 13 former players from six different schools. The players were not named, but their former schools were: Eastern Michigan, Temple, Arizona State, New Orleans, North Carolina A&T and Mississippi Valley State.
“The NCAA is releasing this information at this point in the process because of the extensive public reporting regarding these cases,” the association’s statement said. “The NCAA will not publicly name the involved student-athletes until the infractions process has concluded. None of them are enrolled at their previous NCAA schools.”
All of these cases involve what the NCAA characterizes as “integrity concerns,” which means point shaving, game fixing or individual performance manipulation. Sources familiar with the cases said that some are “overlapping” in nature and involve third parties from outside the institutions. Sources told SI that many of these cases involve a coordinated effort by a group of individuals to fix games across the sport.
More College Football on Sports Illustrated
Listen to SI’s new college sports podcast, Others Receiving Votes, below or on Apple and Spotify. Watch the show on SI’s YouTube channel.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as NCAA to Allow Athletes to Bet on Pro Sports in Major Rule Change.
