Texas Coach Steve Sarkisian slams the NCAA's new gambling policy for athletes, questioning its impact on young men now earning significant NIL money.
Discussions surrounding sports and gambling have become all the rage in recent years. Whether it’s the recent news of Hall of Famer and head coach Chauncey Billups, allegedly partaking in illegal poker operations, or former Toronto Raptors player Jontay Porter betting on his own games, there’s no shortage of topics to talk about.
And now it seems a new story has been added into the mix.
On Wednesday, Oct. 22, the NCAA announced that it had approved a rule change allowing athletes and athletic department staff members to bet on professional sports. The new rule goes in effect on Nov. 1. While it brings a significant change to the status quo on sports betting in college, athletes will still be prohibited from betting on any college sports. The NCAA also announced that despite the change, it still doesn’t endorse sports betting, particularly for its college athletes.
“Our action reflects alignment across divisions while maintaining the principles that guide college sports,” said Roberta Page, director of athletics at Slippery Rock and chair of the Division II Management Council. “This change recognizes the realities of today’s sports environment without compromising our commitment to protecting the integrity of college competition or the well-being of student-athletes.”
The new rule change has already caught some flak. Specifically, from Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian, who vehemently disagrees with the decision of letting student-athletes potentially make millions in NIL deals now gamble that money on sports.
“I totally disagree with the NCAA on this, and I was very vocal about it,” Sarkisian said. “Here we are in an era where we have revenue sharing and NIL publicity rights, and so the players now have money, so now let’s give them the freedom to take that money and gamble it away. That makes no sense to me when we’re in a space of educating young people, and part of educating young people is what to do with their money.”
Sarkisian went on to question the broader impact of this decision, suggesting it goes against what the Texas football coaching staff has been teaching its young students.
“I’m disappointed in this ruling that this is what we decided to do with our young people, when they could be doing something really substantial in their lives, for their own lives, and for their families’ lives,” Sarkisian said. “So let’s be clear about that. They’re not all going to gamble, but some are. And is that what we were trying to accomplish with this?”
While the controversial rule change has yet to go into effect, it’s sure to impact the ever-growing world of sports betting. And as advertising and media corporations work to further promote sports-betting, there’s no way to really know just how far it will go.