NCAA's sports wagering enforcement arm has plenty of teeth

Paralyzed by a legitimate fear of litigation, the NCAA can’t for the life of it get its arms around how, if at all, to police the more than two-year-old NIL space.

Cries over rampant pay-for-play recruiting schemes play out alongside debates among federal lawmakers over whether a third-party entity needs to take over NIL enforcement duties – a dust cloud of rhetoric and bluster, and no consensus resolution. 

But when it comes to policing escalating enforcement issues surrounding the growing sports wagering space, this much is clear: The NCAA has its house in order.

Thursday’s news that a former Air Force men’s golf head coach – who was not named – violated NCAA rules by knowingly participating in impermissible sports wagering, including placing bets on the university’s football program, isn’t going to raise eyebrows among most college sports fans.

But it is not only significant but a harbinger of what’s to come.

Absorb the Air Force news while mindful that, since 2018, the NCAA has found more than 175 infractions of its sports-betting policy. As of this summer, the NCAA maintained 17 active investigations, according to a letter from NCAA President Charlie Baker.

Think the NCAA is bluffing on policing the sports wagering space? Refer to the trademark Deion Sanders just applied for: “F AROUND AND FIND OUT.”

NCAA taking hardline stance on sports wagering

The NCAA can’t afford to go soft on sports wagering. When the integrity of games could be in question, the stakes are too high. 

The NCAA and member conferences, an increasing number of which now partner with Las Vegas-based monitoring firm U.S. Integrity, aren’t going to catch all coaches, administrators and athletes who run afoul of its sports betting policy. 

In fact, even U.S. Integrity, which first flagged abnormalities in betting surrounding Alabama baseball last spring, acknowledges that for every perpetrator caught, many others fall through the cracks.

“Oh, my goodness – a lot,” Matt Holt, CEO and founder of U.S. Integrity, recently told On3. “What I always say is, ‘Look, we catch the really dumb people. We catch the less sophisticated people. We’re catching all the ones that we’re supposed to.’

“But at some point, we need to get the same level of data in the same timeliness as the SEC (U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission) in the financial services market. We need to get 100% of the bets in the country funneling through a system and identifying abnormalities in real-time.”

Former coach sanctioned with 5-year show-cause order

But as it turned out, self-inflicted errors caught up with the Air Force men’s golf coach. 

On Sept. 20, 2020, Air Force’s then-head golf coach created a sports wagering account using his girlfriend’s driver’s license and social security number and his personal email address, according to the report from the NCAA’s Division 1 Committee on Infractions.

The coach used his girlfriend’s information to create the account because he knew NCAA rules prohibited participation in sports wagering, the report said.

Between Sept. 29 and Dec. 10 of that year, the account placed 253 wagers on professional and college sports. In total, 107 bets were on NCAA events, with six on Air Force football games. Exactly $9,259 was wagered on NCAA or pro sports. This included $250 on six Air Force football games.

On Oct. 23, 2020, the online wagering platform flagged the account and denied additional funding when the then-head golf coach attempted to add an additional funding source linked to a trust fund in his name. Some two months later, when the account’s funds were exhausted, his wagering ceased.

Here’s the important part: In the spring of 2021, the coach and girlfriend broke up.

Fast forward to Feb. 2022, when Air Force compliance received information through its online compliance reporting system that the then-golf coach bet on sports in late 2020. Where did the information come from?

Someone who would know: the ex-girlfriend.

‘This could be one of our schools’

Air Force reported the information to the Colorado Division of Gaming and to the NCAA enforcement staff. Following the Colorado Division of Gaming’s criminal investigation, NCAA enforcement began its probe.

The penalty for the former Air Force golf coach is not a slap on the wrist. It’s a five-year show-cause order.

During the show-cause order, any employing member institution shall restrict the former coach from any athletically related position. If he becomes employed in the first year after the show-cause order, he shall be suspended for 50% of the men’s golf regular season.

Talk to any sports wagering expert and they’ll say plenty more cases are on the way.

Sports betting is now legal in nearly 40 states. Some $150 billion will be wagered on sports in North America this year alone. There’s going to be an increasing number of individuals who try to skirt the rules.

Tom McMillen, CEO of LEAD1 Association, told On3 sports wagering is his personal No. 1 concern in all of college sports. He says it is an “existential threat” and the implications could be “catastrophic.”

For industry leaders, the recent spate of impropriety “makes it real,” Big Sky Commissioner Tom Wistrcill recently told On3. 

“It heightens awareness of it. It’s a reminder that this could be us. This could be one of our schools,” he said.

Leaders call for national sports wagering study

McMillen is among industry leaders who have called for the NCAA to conduct its first self-described national study since 2003 on the prevalence of sports wagering among student-athletes. The NCAA is expected to conduct a student-athlete survey on sports betting activity this fall. In the spring, a separate NCAA survey of 3,527 18- to 22-year-olds found that 58% have engaged in at least one sports betting activity. 

“While there are states that prohibit it,” Mountain West Conference Commissioner Gloria Nevarez told On3, “it’s really a national, if not international thing that we can’t ignore.”

Keith Gill, the Sun Belt Conference commissioner, said he “has concerns everywhere” because the industry is “vulnerable.”

Stakeholders need to stop burying heads

As football season nears its halfway mark, the entire college athletics industry is holding its collective breath. Holt told On3 that he expects two sports betting scandals this college football season alone.

No industry stakeholder can afford to look away.

In a conversation earlier this year with one athletic director, McMillen asked, “How many of your student-athletes have bet on games?” The athletic director said, “I don’t know. I have no idea. I almost don’t want to know.”

The bury-your-head-in-the-sand era needs to end, experts say. Not only athletes but, as we have seen at Alabama and now Air Force, coaches are at risk of becoming embroiled in a betting scandal.

The attention-grabbing headlines this spring and summer surrounding the Alabama baseball scandal – ensnared coach Brad Bohannon was promptly fired – and dozens of current and former athletes from Iowa and Iowa State piqued stakeholders’ awareness nationwide.

The Air Force case should have the same effect.

Granted, if the sage towel-chewing philosopher Jerry Tarkanian were alive today, he no doubt would say if an ex-girlfriend turned on a football head coach of a top-five team who engaged in the same nefarious behavior, the NCAA would slap two more years on the Air Force coach’s show-cause order.

When it comes to the NCAA and sports wagering, let’s hope there’s no selective enforcement. Only time will tell, but the stakes are far too high for the NCAA to play favorites.

Say what you want about the NCAA’s impotent policing of the NIL space. But with sports wagering, the beleaguered association is showing that its enforcement arm has plenty of teeth.

Want to call its bluff? See Deion’s slogan.