In the world of college sports, where student-athletes are an integral part of the campus community and often interact with fans, there are concerns that prop bets could negatively impact athletes.
Prop bets are bets where bettors place individual bets on a player to score higher or lower than a certain number of points, as well as assists, rebounds, blocks, and steals. San Diego State athletic director J.D. Wicker acknowledged that outside pressure could lead players to take fan bets.
“Our student-athletes will attend classes, (and) have more interaction in the community,” Wicker said in an ESPN article about the matter. “So it's much more likely that one of them will be under pressure and that something negative will happen, like they'll miss a free throw, they'll miss an over, an under, all sorts of things. is.”
Ole Miss' football program is taking steps to educate and better prepare its players to handle prop bets in college sports.
“I don’t have a lot of knowledge in that area, so if I don’t have knowledge, I bring people together for it,” Kiffin said after Ole Miss football’s practice Tuesday. “I had the SEC coaches talk to me about this (at the SEC Spring Meeting) and I thought they did a great job. They're working with the NFL, they're working with other universities, and I think that's a good thing. These were people who knew how it worked.”
University of Mississippi students are skeptical that the state would seek to ban prop bets.
“I can't imagine a world without sports betting in college,” said Cooper Chapman, a freshman business major. “People are going to be outraged, justified or not, and the NCAA is going to lose a lot of viewership.”
Grant Ward, a freshman engineering major, feels similarly.
“We're just now getting to the point where you might be able to bet online, especially in Mississippi,” Ward said. “I don't think the state of Mississippi is taking a position that will definitely provoke public outrage.”
The debate has reached the top of the NCAA, as President Charlie Baker has also weighed in on the issue.
“The problem of sports betting is on the rise across the country, and prop gambling continues to threaten the integrity of the game, with student-athletes and professional athletes being harassed,” Baker said. X post. “The NCAA is working with states to address these threats, and many states have responded by banning college prop bets.”
Purdue basketball player Carson Barrett received an Instagram direct message from a fan telling him to kill himself after making a three-pointer that put Purdue on the betting line, The Athletic reports.
There are often people who openly harass players on social media if they don't reach a certain status. You can see this in X whenever a player performs poorly in one game.
In another example, the integrity of the NBA game was called into question after Toronto Raptors center Jontay Porter was found to have underperformed his stats. Simply put, he bet that he would score below a certain point. He is accused of intentionally missing shots to achieve this.
No official report on the NBA's investigation into the situation has been released.
Baker concluded his statement on X by promising that the NCAA will address the issues raised by prop bets.
“The NCAA draws a line under sports betting to protect student-athletes and protect society.
Game Integrity — Issues across the country in recent days indicate more problems to come
work to do. ”