NCAA’s June meetings could redefine sports gambling, Division I governance

When the NCAA Division I Council meets later this month, multiple pressing topics could be on the docket. The 40-person council, representing all 32 Division I conferences, will discuss the possibility of removing the current NCAA prohibition on athletes gambling on professional sports.

The Division I Board of Directors has discussed the rule change in the last month, and the Division I Council is expected to discuss the subject when it meets on June 24th and 25th, a source told On3. The D-I Board voted 21–1 in favor of directing the council to “adopt legislation to deregulate the prohibition on wagering on professional sports.” Sports Illustrated first reported on the possible rule change in May. Athletes, coaches and staff members are currently not allowed to wager on professional sports that are also NCAA-sponsored.

But sports betting will not be the only big-ticket item discussed later this month. The D-I Board of Directors, consisting of 24 members, meets on June 23rd and will hear from the Decision-Making Working Group, which has been exploring a new governance model. The group has been collecting feedback in recent weeks, releasing a YouTube video with a breakdown of the proposed structure.

Along with cutting 30 committees, it would also provide the Power Four to steer D-I governance outcomes. The proposed model would grant the power conferences as much as 65% weighted voting power in rules-making committees for decisions on the transfer portal and athlete eligibility, among other topics. SEC commissioner Greg Sankey recently said he’d like that percentage to move up to 68%.

Specifically, the move would reduce the layers of review, opening a pathway to an accelerated legislative process. However, at the proposed 65%, all Power Four conferences would have to vote in unison to pass an item. If the D-I Board decides to send the Decision-Making Working Group recommendations to the D-I Council as emergency legislation, the proposal could be expedited. It remains unknown how soon the governance changes would be adopted if the D-I board took steps to classify it as emergency legislation.

“The SEC has asked for more autonomy for the four conferences,” Sankey recently said. “I don’t have the authority to just depart (the NCAA). I’ve shared with the Decision-Making Working Group that I have people in my room asking, ‘Why are we still in the NCAA?’”

“We’d like to see more authority and autonomy granted under the NCAA heading, and we’d like to come together for championships. … We talked about an autonomy division under the NCAA and would be linked, but you’d have more authority on autonomy.”

The proposed governance has been met with skepticism from the rest of Division I.

“This is not shared governance,” Big West commissioner Dan Butterly wrote in a letter to his conference in May. “This is consolidation of power by the very conferences, institutions and leadership that helped drive the NCAA into its current legal and financial crisis. And now, they seek to rewrite the rules to insulate themselves from accountability.”

Meanwhile, college sports recently received a landscape-shifting decision. With the House v. NCAA settlement approved last week, institutions will be able to begin revenue-sharing directly with athletes next month. The new College Sports Commission entity has been established and will be run by Major League Baseball executive Bryan Seeley. Along with establishing a structure of rules, the College Sports Commission and NCAA still have to sort through what enforcement will look like.

Sources have told On3 that the NCAA will continue to oversee sports betting, eligibility and the infractions process, while the commission will be focused on the revenue-sharing cap, NIL and the NIL Go clearinghouse. What happens when the two governing bodies have an intersection of their two lanes remains to be seen.