New Arizona State assistant tweets ad shilling for sports betting site
Former NFL linebacker Antonio Pierce may be having a hard time balancing his old job with his new job.
Pierce teamed with a sports betting site in September for “weekly picks and expert analysis.” That’s no big deal. But Dec. 22, he was announced as Arizona State’s new linebackers coach. Gambling is a big deal to the NCAA.
So it was slightly awkward, to say the least, when Pierce tweeted an ad for a pick’em contest early Friday morning.
Oh boy. The NCAA has a site called Don’t Bet on It and this is the NCAA’s official position on sports gambling.
The NCAA opposes all forms of legal and illegal sports wagering, which has the potential to undermine the integrity of sports contests and jeopardizes the welfare of student-athletes and the intercollegiate athletics community.
There’s an article on the NCAA’s site about how gambling is as bad as doping and the sport officially believes that gambling “is an entry point into other behaviors that may compromise student-athlete health and well-being.”
The NCAA even has sued to stop New Jersey from re-implementing a law that would legalize sports wagering in the state. The case was heard by the Supreme Court earlier in December.
Athletes who get caught betting while playing college sports can face up to a lifetime ban. Yeah, schools don’t want their coaches plugging sports gambling sites, even if they’re legal.
ASU said in a statement that Pierce’s tweet wasn’t a violation of NCAA rules.
“While we have confirmed that this does not constitute an NCAA violation, we also note that Antonio will no longer be engaged in this type of arrangement as an NCAA institution football coach going forward,” the statement said.
Pierce last did picks for the gambling site on Dec. 8, so we’re wondering if Friday’s tweet was a scheduled tweet that didn’t get deleted.
The Sun Devils play Friday afternoon in the Sun Bowl vs. NC State in the final game of coach Todd Graham’s tenure. The school hired former NFL coach Herm Edwards to replace Graham.
– – – – – – –
Nick Bromberg is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
