What’s New
Starting November 1, the National Collegiate Athletic Association will no longer ban college athletes from betting on professional sports. The change comes as colleges are struggling to navigate a world where it’s easier than ever for their students to gamble.
Councils overseeing policy changes in Division II and Division III gave the green light for the move on Wednesday, after a similar committee in Division I signed off two weeks ago.
The NCAA says the change will help the association focus on a more important realm of enforcement: stopping college athletes from betting on college sports. But some experts are concerned that the rule change will effectively encourage more gambling at a moment when the hobby is increasingly prevalent across higher ed.
The Details
Before the rule change, student-athletes who bet on professional sports faced the potential punishment of losing their playing eligibility.
Timothy D. Sands, president at Virginia Tech and chair of the DI board of directors, said in a statement that the NCAA is making this change to focus on rules that directly relate to the fairness of college sports.
“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 for behaviors that do not impact college sports directly,” he said.
The National Council on Problem Gambling, an advocacy group, has publicly supported the NCAA’s rule change. “Strict prohibitions on legal activities often have the unintended consequence of driving gambling behavior underground and discouraging student-athletes from reaching out for help if they develop a gambling problem,” the group said in a statement.
Scott McKenzie, co-vice chair of the Division I Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, which supported lifting the ban, agreed.
“This is not an encouragement from the student-athlete committee, saying, Go gamble,” he said. “It’s, Hey, if you already were, you now have resources to help you within college athletics.”
Lia Nower, who directs the Center for Gambling Studies at Rutgers University, says she is “not persuaded by that argument.” She pointed out that most colleges have psychologists who are required to maintain confidentiality if an athlete admits to sports betting, so most student-athletes already have access to a punishment-free help line.
The Backdrop
More than 30 states have legalized sports betting since 2018, when the Supreme Court overturned a near-nationwide ban on the practice. Now, people can bet on nearly any element of all sporting events from their phones. Sports betting has exploded in popularity among people of college age, particularly young men.
A 2023 survey from the NCAA found that 58 percent of respondents had participated in at least one sports-betting activity. Sports-betting companies also advertise on college campuses, and the same survey found that students living on campus are more likely to see betting ads than students who live elsewhere.
Though the NCAA has historically banned the practice, some college athletes gamble: Around 22 percent of male athletes surveyed in 2024 said they had bet on sports at least once in the last year.
The Stakes
Nower worries that removing the ban on professional-sports betting will encourage the practice among student-athletes. “The more you sanction anything, the more you increase uptake, particularly with gambling,” she said.
She added that “it’s very difficult to tell whether or not they’re also going to be gambling on college sports. There’s a certain slippery slope that goes along with this.”
A handful of athletes have recently gotten in trouble for placing bets on their own games or purposefully manipulating game outcomes to win money.
In September, the NCAA permanently revoked the playing eligibility of three basketball players for betting on their own games, providing inside information, and purposefully manipulating their performances to win bets. The NCAA is continuing to investigate 13 other men’s basketball players for similar rule violations.
