NCAA athletes and athletics department staff will not be able to bet on professional sports after members of the organization voted beginning Friday to rescind a rule change that would have allowed such bets.
The move follows a series of high-profile betting cases that have raised questions about the integrity of competition in college and professional sports. In late October, Chauncey Billups, coach of the NBA's Portland Trail Blazers, and Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier were arrested in a bust of two alleged expansion gambling operations. Rozier was accused of exploiting private information about players to win bets on NBA games.
The NCAA announced two weeks ago that it was revoking the eligibility of six men's basketball players over sports betting allegations. And on Friday, the NCAA said former Temple guard Hysier Miller placed dozens of bets on Owls games, including some against his team.
The rule change to allow gambling on professional sports would have gone into effect Nov. 1, but under a rarely used rule, each Division I school had 30 days to vote to rescind the proposal since it was adopted by less than 75% of the Division I cabinet.
More than two-thirds of Division I members needed to vote to stop the rule change, and that bar was met Friday. The 30-day period would have ended on Saturday.
Even if the rule had passed, athletes and athletics department staff would still have been prohibited from placing bets on NCAA events.
The vote of Division I members also applies to Divisions II and III, which were also prepared to allow gambling on professional sports. These types of bets will continue to be prohibited at all three levels.
Late last month, SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey sent a note to NCAA President Charlie Baker expressing concerns about the rule change. Both members of the SEC Division I cabinet voted to allow professional sports betting.
The number of NCAA enforcement cases involving sports betting violations has increased in recent years. There are at least a dozen other cases under investigation.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
