Meanwhile, The NCAA Has Approved a Rule Change Allowing College Athletes to Gamble on Professional Sports
A whole mess of illegal sports gambling news hit the wire this morning. Terry Rozier of the Miami Heat, and Head Coach of the Portland Trail Blazers, Chauncey Billups were both arrested this morning on gambling charges. Terry Rozier for illegal sports gambling in connection with games he played in. Chauncey Billups is being charged with playing poker with the mafia. On top of that, Damon Jones has been arrested for allegedly providing inside information to sports bettors. Even the Toronto Rangers have been charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering.
Tough day for the NBA. And this might just be the tip of the ice berg (or turn out to be a whole bunch of nothing... it could go either way).
In other gambling news, what a day for college athletes! As of November 1st, collegiate quarterbacks and point guards across America with million dollar NIL deals (who live in states were gambling is legal), will be free to wager on professional sports as they please.
AP — The NCAA approved a rule change on Wednesday that will allow athletes and athletic department staff members to bet on professional sports.
Two weeks after the Division I cabinet approved the change, Division II and III management councils signed off on it, allowing the new rule to go into effect Nov. 1.
This doesn’t change the NCAA rule forbidding athletes from betting on college sports. The NCAA also prohibits sharing information about college competitions with bettors. The institution also doesn’t accept advertising or sponsorships of NCAA championships by betting sites.
It's a little surprising to me that the NCAA is allowing this to happen. For the most part, in 99% of cases, I'm sure it's no big deal. Who cares if the left tackle for Kennesaw State wants to throw $10 on a 4-man NFL touchdown parlay. But you know there are plenty of college football players who have connections to players in the NFL. There are certainly players in college right now whose close friends have been drafted, and are now playing the league. They could surely get their hands some information that isn't available to the general public if they sought it out.
Obviously, you don't have to be a college football player to have friends in the NFL. Anybody can have friends who play professional sports. But this is the NCAA we're talking about. They once ran a 24-year veteran coach of one of their premier money-making programs out of his job because some players traded their personal belongings for tattoos. The NCAA used to live for flexing their muscles and hammering their athletes + coaches with any petty violation they could think of. Funny how times have changed.
I barely even know what the NCAA does anymore. They appear to be pretty damn toothless these days. They can't stop athletes from making money. They can't prevent them from transferring schools at will. It seems like the only move they have left is to try and ruin sports by expanding the playoffs until they include every team in the league. Aside from that, the only time I see the NCAA in the news is when they're rolling over on yet another rule.
What a day for gambling.