The NCAA Board of Governors announced they will not require standardized injury reports following the expansion of legal sports betting.
The NCAA Board of Governors announced Wednesday that it still supports the association’s rules prohibiting athletes and school administrators from wagering on sports or providing information to people associated with gambling. But the board concluded an injury or availability report across college football is not viable. An ad hoc committee on sports wagering studied the possibility of teams publicly disclosing whether players would be available for games.
“The ad hoc committee gathered thorough feedback from conference commissioners, athletics administrators, athletic trainers and student-athletes across all three divisions about potential player availability reporting,” said Ohio State President Michael Drake, who is chairman of the Board of Governors. “The membership has significant concerns about the purpose, parameters, enforcement and effectiveness of a player availability reporting model.”
The idea to create a standardized injury report, similar to what currently exists in the NFL, came from concern that legalized gambling might provide more temptation for bettors to seek injury information from athletes or other team personnel.
Last month, the NCAA placed UNC Greensboro on a three-year probation after two former athletic department staffers placed bets on sporting events, including on the school’s mens basketball team.
One of the men, a women’s assistant basketball coach, said he placed an “extensive number of online wagers on professional and college sports,” but then declined to cooperate with the rest of the inquiry, refusing to provide his online sports wagering histories which prevented the enforcement staff from being able to determine the full extent of his gambling activities.
The second man, Greensboro’s former assistant director of the university’s fundraising organization, also admitted to wagering small amounts online on professional and college sports, including at least one on the university’s men’s basketball team.
Seven staff members knew of the former assistant coach’s wagering, according to the release, and two knew he wagered on the school’s own men’s basketball team. The university and the NCAA enforcement staff agreed that the university failed to monitor and ensure compliance with NCAA rules when the staffers did not report his activities immediately.
An alternate broadcast of Washington Redskins preseason games will include a live prediction contest with cash prizes.
Starting with Thursday’s preseason opener at Cleveland, NBC Sports Washington Plus will show the “Predict the Game” broadcast. The game footage will be lined by graphics featuring stats correlated to the prediction contest, with propositions popping up at the bottom of the screen at varying points in the game. The contestants who have the most correct responses in each quarter will win $1,000.
The Redskins are the first NFL franchise to create an alternate broadcast centered on a prediction contest. Washington also was the first NFL team to partner with a daily fantasy sports operator and the first to put its team marks on a scratch-off lottery ticket.
“We’re proud to be the first NFL club to do this and it follows a line of innovations that we’ve had along this space,” Redskins senior vice president Scott Shepherd told ESPN on Tuesday.
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