NCAA athletes won’t be able to bet on professional sports starting on Saturday.
The NCAA said Tuesday it would delay the implementation of its new sports betting policy — which would allow athletes to bet on professional sports — until at least Nov. 22. The announcement came hours after Yahoo Sports reported on a letter the SEC sent to the NCAA, stating the conference’s opposition to the new NCAA rule.
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The SEC said in its letter the “NCAA should restore its prior policy — or a modified policy — communicating a prohibition on gambling by student-athletes and athletics staff, regardless of the divisional level of their sport.”
The NCAA’s Division I Cabinet voted to change the organization’s rules on sports gambling on Oct. 8. The new rule would still prohibit athletes and staff from voting on college sports, but allow them to place wagers on professional sporting events.
The vote did not reach a 75% supermajority threshold. Since it didn’t, schools have the ability to vote within 30 days to rescind the rule.
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In its Oct. 8 announcement, Illinois athletic director and DI Administrative Committee chair said in a statement the change “allows the NCAA, the conferences, and the member schools to focus on protecting the integrity of college games while, at the same time, encouraging healthy habits for student-athletes who choose to engage in betting activities on professional sports.”
The NCAA has been investigating instances of alleged betting violations involving over a dozen athletes. The governing body recently announced that three former Eastern Michigan basketball players had failed to cooperate with an NCAA investigation into suspicious betting activity surrounding a January game. Players can lose their eligibility if found to have bet or provided inside information on their own sports. However, the players in question were all in their final seasons of eligibility during the 2024-25 college basketball season.
