DI Council to reexamine sports wagering reinstatement guidelines:

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At the request of the Collegiate Commissioners Association, the Division I Council directed the Division I Committee on Student-Athlete Reinstatement and Legislative Committee to reexamine the legislation and application of reinstatement guidelines for student-athletes who engage in sports wagering.

The current reinstatement guidelines were recently reviewed by the council and Legislative Committee following modifications made by the reinstatement committee in May. The commissioners requested the review of guidelines after recent outcomes in reinstatement cases — involving wagering violations that have yielded permanent or long-term ineligibility for student-athletes — to ensure that NCAA members think penalties reflect the current wagering environment.

"We continue to put student-athlete well-being front and center in the Association's efforts around sports wagering, including this week's action related to reconsideration of penalties that members believe have been overly punitive to student-athletes," NCAA President Charlie Baker said. "This is an important step toward modernizing the NCAA's approach to sports wagering. Included in that updated approach is our plan to advocate through state and federal legislators to reduce harassment of young people from bettors and to increase education efforts to help prevent problem gambling in the student population."

Specifically, the committees will review penalties for student-athletes who participate in sports wagering, but not on their own teams. The council reaffirmed that significant penalties continue to be appropriate for wagering behaviors that potentially compromise the integrity of contests, including wagering on a student-athlete's own team. The Committee on Student-Athlete Reinstatement is expected to complete its review and finalize recommendations by mid-October, with a final Council Coordination Committee vote on updated guidelines to occur at the end of October. The guidelines potentially could be applied retroactively.

Draft concepts under consideration include:

  • On a first offense, eliminate penalties that result in student-athletes being withheld from competition — regardless of the dollar value of the wagers and including bets placed on other sports at a student-athlete's school — and require education on sports wagering rules and prevention.
  • On a second offense, potentially involve withholding penalties, depending on the dollar value of the bet(s) in question.
  • On a third or subsequent offense, resulting penalty could be a loss of one full season of eligibility.
The commissioners and the council underscored a desire to re-center student-athlete health and well-being as a primary focus and prioritize treatment and education over sanctions when integrity of competition is not in question, particularly in the rapidly evolving wagering landscape in which online gambling is prevalent.

In May, the NCAA released the results of a survey that examined gambling behaviors of the general college student population. Results indicated 16% of the population engaged in at least one risky wagering behavior, and at least 70% of gamblers exhibiting risky behavior think consistent wagering will improve their earnings.

To date, the NCAA has partnered with EPIC Risk Management to reach more than 20,000 student-athletes, coaches and administrators through education efforts — the largest program of its kind globally. In addition to educational efforts for game officials, the NCAA is aligning an enhanced background check program with higher-risk sports as identified by a periodic sports wagering risk assessment.

Additionally, the NCAA announced Wednesday it will begin working with state and federal lawmakers to address harassment that student-athletes are receiving from bettors online.
 
www.ncaa.org

DI approves changes to reinstatement guidelines for sports wagering violations - NCAA.org

The Division I Legislative Committee on Tuesday ratified a Division I Committee on Student Athlete Reinstatement decision to amend guidelines for reinstating the
www.ncaa.org www.ncaa.org

The Division I Legislative Committee on Tuesday ratified a Division I Committee on Student Athlete Reinstatement decision to amend guidelines for reinstating the eligibility of student-athletes who commit violations relating to sports wagering. The Division I Council was briefed on those new guidelines during its meeting this week in Indianapolis.

For all wagering-related violations reported on or after May 2, the following guidelines will apply:

  • Student-athletes who engage in activities to influence the outcomes of their own games or knowingly provide information to individuals involved in sports betting activities will potentially face permanent loss of collegiate eligibility in all sports. This would also apply to student-athletes who wager on their own games or on other sports at their own schools.
  • If a student-athlete wagers on their own sport at another school, education on sports wagering rules and prevention will be required as a condition of reinstatement, and the loss of 50% of one season of eligibility will be considered.
  • For all other wagering-related violations (e.g., wagering on professional sports), cumulative dollar value of the wagers will be taken into consideration with the following terms for reinstatement:
    • $200 or less: sports wagering rules and prevention education.
    • $201-$500: loss of 10% of a season of eligibility, plus rules and prevention education.
    • $501-$800: loss of 20% of a season of eligibility, plus rules and prevention education.
    • Greater than $800: loss of 30% of a season of eligibility, plus rules and prevention education.
For cumulative wagering activities that greatly exceed $800, NCAA reinstatement staff are directed to consider whether additional loss of eligibility, including permanent ineligibility, are appropriate.

"These new guidelines modernize penalties for college athletes at a time when sports wagering has been legalized in dozens of states and is easily accessible nationwide with online betting platforms," said Alex Ricker-Gilbert, athletics director at Jacksonville and chair of the DI Legislative Committee. "While sports wagering by college athletes is still a concern — particularly as we remain committed to preserving the integrity of competition in college sports — consideration of mitigating factors is appropriate as staff prescribe penalties for young people who have made mistakes in this space."

Previous reinstatement guidelines, which were implemented prior to the broader legalization of sports wagering, stipulated that in most cases, student-athletes who wagered on sports at any level would lose one full season of collegiate eligibility.

The council directed the national office to continue to explore issues around rules education and integrity monitoring and requested additional updates on these topics.

Scholarships for transfers​

In August 2022, the Division I Board adopted changes to transfer rules that require a school that awards a scholarship to a transfer to continue to provide that scholarship for the rest of that student-athlete's eligibility, unless they graduate, transfer again or leave for professional athletics opportunities.

The council this week adopted two modifications to those requirements. The first will allow transfers who opt not to participate in sports after a coaching change at their second school to continue to receive their scholarships without counting against team scholarship limits. The second modification exempts a school from being obligated to count the scholarship if the transferring student-athlete does not actually enroll at the school.

The council also introduced a proposal into the legislative cycle that, if approved, will continue to mandate that transfers who stop competing for nonathletics reasons receive scholarship funds until they graduate, transfer or pursue professional athletics opportunities. However, the proposed change would no longer count those individuals as part of a team's scholarship limits if they withdraw from the school, enabling athletics scholarship dollars to be reallocated to a currently participating student-athlete.

Transfer windows​

The council introduced a proposal to reduce notification-of-transfer windows to 30 days, down from 60. Data from the past year indicate that most student-athletes enter the Transfer Portal at the beginning of the transfer window.

Now that the proposal has been formally introduced, respective oversight committees and the Division I Student Athlete Advisory Committee will gather additional feedback and offer potential amendments to the proposal over the summer. A final vote on the proposal will be considered by the council during its October meeting.
 
 
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