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NCAA set to push states with legalized sports betting to ban prop bets for all college sporting events

Nick Bromberg
College football and motorsports writer
·3 min read
34

The NCAA is pushing states to ban prop bets involving college players.

NCAA president Charlie Baker issued a statement Wednesday asking all states that have legalized sports gambling to pass laws prohibiting the availability of individual prop bets for college athletic events. Baker’s statement comes as the NBA is in the midst of an investigation into prop betting activity earlier this year.

“Sports betting issues are on the rise across the country with prop bets continuing to threaten the integrity of competition and leading to student-athletes and professional athletes getting harassed,” Baker said in a statement. “The NCAA has been working with states to deal with these threats and many are responding by banning college prop bets.

“This week we will be contacting officials across the country in states that still allow these bets and ask them to join Ohio, Vermont, Maryland and many others and remove college prop bets from all betting markets. The NCAA is drawing the line on sports betting to protect student-athletes and to protect the integrity of the game — issues across the country these last several days show there is more work to be done.”

The NBA confirmed Monday that it was looking into betting irregularities involving prop bets for Toronto Raptors forward Jontay Porter. According to ESPN, two games are being investigated. Ahead of both of those games, unders on specific prop bets for Porter were bet heavily. He left each of those games early due to injury or illness and the unders cashed.

The NCAA’s stance against prop betting comes as it navigates a world where sports betting is legal in many states. The NCAA has staunchly been against betting for decades as the NCAA tournament’s betting-friendly model is a major reason why March Madness has become so popular. You don’t have to be a college basketball fan to fill out a bracket and enter a bracket pool in the hope of winning prizes or money.

According to the Action Network, only four states — Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan and Wyoming — along with Washington D.C., have no restrictions on college prop bets. The other 18 states either limit the type of prop bets you can make (in New Jersey you can’t bet props for New Jersey teams) or have banned prop bets on college games altogether.

In the states where prop bets are fully legal, you can bet on many aspects of the game. At BetMGM in Kansas, you can bet on who will score the first basket of the game in any of the eight Sweet 16 games as well as a player’s assist or 3-point totals. For example, Clemson’s P.J. Hall is the favorite at +333 to score the first field goal in the first Sweet 16 game Thursday night against Arizona.