Division I schools vote to overturn NCAA rule allowing athletes to bet on professional sports

The NCAA will not allow athletes and staffers to bet on professional sports.

The governing body announced Friday that a majority of Division I schools had voted to overturn a recent rule change that would have allowed gambling on professional sports. In early October, the NCAA Division I Administrative Committee approved a proposal that could allow players and athletic department members to bet on pro sports as early as Nov. 1.

Current NCAA rules prohibit gambling on college sports along with professional sports.

The committee’s proposal was met with immediate pushback, including from the SEC. Commissioner Greg Sankey voiced his opposition to the rule and, clearly, the SEC wasn’t alone.

In late October, the NCAA announced that the rule wouldn’t be implemented until Nov. 22 at the earliest. In the interim, schools had a 30-day window to vote to rescind the proposal. If two-thirds of DI schools voted to overturn the new rule, it would be rescinded since the committee did not pass the rule with at least a 75% supermajority.

The NCAA did not say in its statement how many schools had voted to overturn the new rule, just that the threshold had been met. As a result of the vote, players and staffers in Division I, Division II and Division III are still prohibited from betting on all sports

In its statement announcing the change, DI administrative committee chair and Illinois AD Josh Whitman said rolling back the ban on pro sports betting would allow “the NCAA, the conferences, and the member schools to focus on protecting the integrity of college games while, at the same time, encourage healthy habits for student-athletes who choose to engage in betting activities on professional sports.”

The SEC said in its letter to the NCAA that its chancellors were “clear and united” against the new rule and that the current gambling policy should be addressed via “careful refinement.”

The NCAA’s attempted changes to the rules come as multiple college athletes have been found to have violated the sports gambling ban. On Friday, the NCAA said that former Temple player Hysier Miller had placed 39 bets on his team over an 18-month period from 2022 through 2024 and had even placed three bets against the Owls.