NCAA Rescinds Rule Change to Allow Student-Athletes to Bet on Professional Sports

• DI members schools have voted to rescind an approved rule change to allow student-athletes, staff, and coaches to bet on professional sports
• The rule change was set to get into effect on Saturday, Nov. 22
• The complete ban on sports betting will remain in place for the NCAA

The NCAA has officially reversed course on a rule change that would have allowed student-athletes to bet on professional sports.

The NCAA announced tonight that two-thirds of Division I members schools voted to rescind a previously approved rule change to allow student-athletes, coaches, and staff to bet on professional sports.

The ban on all forms of betting will remain in place for all three NCAA divisions.

Betting Ban Remains in Place

The NCAA Division I Administrative Committee adopted the proposal to allow student-athletes and athletic department staff members to bet on professional sports in early October. The D-I committee first proposed the rule change this past June.

The Division II Management Council approved the legislation later in the month to permit student-athletes and athletics department staff members to bet on professional sports. The Division III Management Council also approved the legislation.

The rule change was set to go into effect on Nov. 1, but the Division I Board of Directors voted on Oct. 29 to delay the rule change until Nov. 22. Under its legislative process, the NCAA allows a rule change to be rescinded within 30 days of becoming final if two thirds of the division’s members submit a request supporting its rescission.

Reports began to arise that the NCAA and its divisions were having second thoughts on the change due to a recent crop of sports betting scandals. According to a report from ESPN, SEC commissioner Greg Sankey sent a letter to NCAA President Charlie Baker after the approval, noting that the rule change is a “major step in the wrong direction.”

“On behalf of our universities, I write to urge action by the NCAA Division I Board of Directors to rescind this change and reaffirm the Association’s commitment to maintaining strong national standards that keep collegiate participants separated from sports wagering activity at every level,” Sankey wrote in the letter. “If there are legal or practical concerns about the prior policy, those should be addressed through careful refinement – not through wholesale removal of the guardrails that have long supported the integrity of games and the well-being of those who participate.”

NCAA Sports Betting Violations Increasing

The rule change comes at a time when the NCAA’s caseload involving sports betting violations has continued to increase, but in which most violations being pursed involve conduct that directly impacts the integrity of college sports

Most recently, the NCAA announced an investigation of 13 former men’s basketball student athletes who competed at six schools for sports betting violations. While the facts differ for each athlete, they all include instances of student athletes betting on and against their own teams, sharing information with third parties for purpose of sports betting, knowingly manipulating scoring or game outcomes, and/or refusing to participate in the enforcement staff’s investigation.

Today, the NCAA also announced former Temple men’s basketball guard  Hysier Miller placed numerous bets on and against the Temple men’s basketball team across two seasons.

An NCAA investigation revealed that from Nov. 7, 2022, through March 2, 2024, Miller placed 39 bets on the Temple men’s basketball team, and three against the team, for a total of $473. Each of the bets were legs of a separate parlay.

Miller interviewed with the NCAA enforcement agency and admitted to placing bets on Temple, however he said he did not recall placing bets against the team.

Miller played three seasons in total for the Temple Owls, from 2021 through 2024 and played in 91 games with the program. In the 2022-2023 and 2023-2024 seasons, he played and started in all 76 games for the Owls. He averaged 10.6 points per game for the program.

Miller is now intelligible for the NCAA. He can only be reinstated through the assistance of another NCAA school.