Sports activities betting issues are as previous as sports activities themselves, and school athletics has been no stranger.
The current information that Texas Tech quarterback Brendan Sorsby will enter a rehab facility for a playing dependancy comes on the heels of a large betting scandal throughout school basketball that featured quite a few gamers allegedly trying to affect outcomes.
NCAA president Charlie Baker has tried to adapt the group’s sports activities betting penalties to the present occasions. These modifications have remained fluid. Right here’s the place the principles at the moment stand.
What are the NCAA’s present guidelines?
For many of school sports activities historical past, sports activities betting of any form was banned and closely punished. In 2022, Virginia Tech linebacker Alan Tisdale was initially suspended for 9 video games for betting round $400 on the NBA Finals. It was lowered to 6 video games upon enchantment.
However in 2023, the Division I Council accepted new reinstatement pointers meant to cut back the penalties for sure sorts of playing. Beneath these 2023 pointers, any participant who wagers on their very own video games or on different sports activities at their very own faculty will probably face everlasting lack of eligibility in all sports activities. The identical applies if a participant engages in actions to affect the result of their very own video games or knowingly supplies data to folks in sports activities betting.
If a participant wagers on their very own sport at one other faculty, the participant may lose 50 % of 1 season of eligibility. They need to additionally obtain schooling on sports activities wagering guidelines and prevention.
For all different betting violations, equivalent to professional sports activities, it is dependent upon the cumulative amount of cash wagered:
$200 or much less: Solely additional schooling is required
$201 to $500: Lack of 10 % of a season, plus additional schooling
$501 to $800: Lack of 30 % of a season, plus additional schooling
Greater than $800: NCAA reinstatement workers will contemplate whether or not additional lack of eligibility is acceptable, together with probably everlasting ineligibility.
Tried rule change in 2025
In October 2025, the Division I Administration Committee accepted a brand new rule to permit gamers and workers to guess on professional sports activities. The Division II and Division III administration committees additionally adopted.
The rule was set to enter impact on Nov. 1, nevertheless it was met with backlash and squashed. SEC commissioner Greg Sankey despatched a letter to Baker asking for a reversal. The implementation was delayed, adopted by a vote of greater than two-thirds of the 365 Division I colleges, which rescinded the rule.
“As a result of sports activities betting guidelines are widespread laws, the ban on all types of betting — for sports activities by which the NCAA sponsors a championship — will stay in place for all three NCAA divisions,” the NCAA mentioned in a press release.
Current points in school sports activities
Like different sports activities, extra school sports activities betting scandals have popped up lately with the rising legalization of sports activities betting in quite a few states.
In 2023, at the very least 30 Iowa and Iowa State athletes had been implicated in sports activities betting of assorted levels as a part of a authorized probe, with 16 dealing with fees and lots of dropping NCAA eligibility. Misdemeanor fees landed minor plea offers for underage playing, however felony fees had been later dismissed because it was decided that the state’s search with geolocating instruments was unconstitutional. A lawsuit filed by these athletes in opposition to the investigators was dismissed final fall over certified immunity.
In January, 20 lively and former school basketball gamers had been charged in a federal indictment round a sports activities playing scandal. A number of the gamers had already been banned by the NCAA for not cooperating in its playing investigation, however some had not been beforehand identified.
Now, Sorsby has grow to be essentially the most high-profile school athlete caught up in a sports activities playing state of affairs.
“Resulting from confidentiality guidelines put in place by NCAA member colleges, the NCAA won’t touch upon present, pending or potential investigations,” an NCAA spokesperson mentioned in a press release. “Nevertheless, the NCAA takes sports activities betting very significantly and is dedicated to the safety of student-athlete well-being and the integrity of competitors. The Affiliation works with integrity monitoring providers, state regulators and different stakeholders to conduct acceptable due diligence at any time when reviews are acquired.”
