NCAA president says prop bets 'problematic' for college sports
NCAA President Charlie Baker on Monday expressed concern over player prop bets and how widespread legalization of them could have an adverse effect on college athletics.
Speaking before the NCAA men's basketball national championship game at State Farm Stadium, Baker said the NCAA "is kind of in the top of the first inning" on sports betting and how it could impact individual student-athletes.
"The prop betting piece is enormously problematic for student athletes. And I've had a lot of them say that to me. It's been one of the biggest issues we've heard about, which is part of the reason why we've created a campaign to get states to eliminate prop betting for student athletes for college sports," Baker said. "We've managed so far to get three or four states to stop doing that. We've also gotten some states to pass harassment legislation."
Placing bets on individual performance of college athletes is illegal in Arizona, though team prop bets are legal. Prop bets are wagers placed on specific events or outcomes in a game not directly related to the final score or result.
Integrity matters, Baker said.
"I think it's really important for us to recognize that this is going to be a challenging issue. And we really need to take seriously the fact that student athletes generally are surrounded by a huge percentage of their classmates and their schoolmates who bet on sports, which is a problem all by itself," Baker said. "When it comes to our own student-athletes, when we hear them talking to us about some of the noise they're getting (from bettors at games), we really need to do something about it."
Baker was also asked about the growth in viewership and fan support in women's college basketball, after a highly successful campaign that culminated in exponentially more interest in the Women's Final Four.
Baker credited the NCAA's partnership with ESPN for aiding in more eyes on the women's game.
"While I certainly like to think we and the schools had something to do with the growth of the visibility of that tournament, ESPN had something to do with it. They also committed to a ton of new programming and promotion, production and marketing, support for the women's tournament and for the other tournaments that are part of that package," Baker said. "And we got a lot of really good advice from a lot of smart people about how to make sure we got what we considered to be a good deal. It's a three-times increase over the deal that was in place previously, I don't know if anybody else has gotten anything like a '3x' lately on something.
"And the final thing I'll say is, I think the opportunities here are significant. And it's really important for all of us to double down and continue to enhance that championship and many of the other championships that are in that portfolio, a bunch of other ones that are really starting to make some noise.
"There's lots of opportunity there for us."
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: NCAA chief Charlie Baker: Prop betting a problem for college sports
