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Sports Illustrated reported on Friday that the NCAA may be reconsidering its policy prohibiting staff, coaches and players from wagering on professional sports. They will not be able to bet on college games.
As SI notes, this is a continuation of the NCAA's review of sports gambling that began in 2023.
“This is a cultural and philosophical recalibration for college athletics—both in terms of priorities and resources,” says Matt Banker, college athletics consultant with MB Sports Consulting and a former administrator on both the campus and conference levels. “The world of sports wagering looks far different in 2025 than it did even ten years ago, as it's now legal in almost 80% of the United States. From a resource standpoint, if the NCAA national office’s only function was to monitor all three NCAA divisions’ hundreds of thousands of athletes, coaches, and staff for all iterations of sports wagering—including pro-sports wagering—that could be the full-time job for everyone in the building.”
If the rule change is approved, it would signal that the NCAA and its member schools are pulling back to focus on policing wagering that more directly threatens the college athletics product. That starts with integrity—point-shaving, game-fixing or manipulating individual performances—and extends to pressure and criticism aimed at athletes who cost gamblers money.
“At a macro level, the biggest risk to college sports is point shaving and prop bets and the integrity of its competitions being called into question,” Banker says. “It’s not whether a college athlete or coach bets on the Super Bowl or WNBA Finals. Is it risky to gamble on an individual level? Of course. Is pro sports gambling by a college athlete or coach the biggest threat to college athletics? It’s not.”
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