NCAA Punishes College Athletes for Fantasy Sports Betting

For god's sake, don't pay student-athletes, or treat them like adults!

Student-athletes found to be gambling on fantasy sports (including sites DraftKings/FanDuel) will automatically lose 1 year of eligibility.

— UK Compliance (@ukcompliance) September 23, 2015

Because the rules and regulations surrounding college sports can always get more stupid, the NCAA is now punishing athletes for fantasy sports betting. The NCAA's director of enforcement told ESPN:

"NCAA member schools have defined sports wagering as putting something at risk — such as an entry fee — with the opportunity to win something in return, which includes fantasy league games. Because of this, student-athletes, coaches, administrators and national office staff may not participate in a fantasy league game with a paid entry fee."

I'm a huge fan of college sports, even as I recognize the whole system only detracts from the educational mission of schools and totally rips off students who almost always subsidize athletic departments even at big-time sports schools.

It's well past time to free the serfs and disestablish sports and higher education. At the very least, the NCAA, an organization that is imperious as it is idiotic, could actually share some of the bread college sports makes with the athletes themselves.

Watch "How Much is a College Football Player Worth?"

Comments

[Almanian - Micro Trumper]

#BlackLivesMatter

#UnlessTheyreAthuhletes

[grrizzly]

I think a huge popularity of fantasy sports can be explained, to a large extent, by the fact that the US is the only country this side of the North Korean border where online poker is banned.

[Mickey Rat]

That may explain the weekly leagues like Fanduel which is basically a variation on a numbers racket. A lot of people genuinely like the idea of being a GM of your own team and having the intricacies of competing with friends.

[egould310]

Fanduel is more akin to horse race gambling. The players are "handicapped" and the betting is parimutuel.

[Overt]

Most daily fantasy is explicitly NOT pari mutuel. That is, you don't have a pool that increases as more people buy in until the betting closes and you have a full reckoning of the payouts. Instead, most daily fantasy is fixed pool. The 'house' sets up a pool with a fixed number of entrants at a certain fee, and then guarantee the payout to the winner(s). If the pool does not fill (i.e. you don't get enough entrants) either the pool is dissolved, or the house covers the empty spaces. This is why many of the fantasy games with these companies actually don't make the company any money.

This (and a few other definitional changes) is done specifically to get around state and federal regulations designed to make pari mutuel betting illegal.

[Dark Lord of the wood chipper]

People like fantasy sports because 99.999% of fans are convinced that they know more about the game than coaches and GMs. This gives them a chance(in their minds only) to prove it. Plus gambling is fun. Plus it gives the stat nerds something to do.

[Brett L]

Considering that I got my dick knocked in the dirt and then stepped on in the first two weeks of my office NFL pick'em pool, I should not be associated with the sport in any way.

[Hyperion]

Well, they have to be punished for something, right? How else can a good comrade learn their place?

[Hyperion]

So I was going to Asheville, NC and somehow I wound up in Canada. Anyone have any good tips for stuff to do in Ontario, outside of the obvious stuff?

[RBS]

That's, um, a pretty big miss.

[Marty Feldman's Eyes]

It was that right turn at Albuquerque. Should have taken a left.

[Hyperion]

Yeah, it was a complete 180 starting from Baltimore. What I meant is that I changed my mind last minute about where to go for a few days.

[RBS]

I used to know a really hot blonde from Peterborough, you could try to find her.

[Scarecrow & WoodChipper Repair]

It's Canada, she's pretty chilled out by now.

[Hyperion]

I don't know if anyone here is chilled out to any extent. It seems like that everything that is very simple in the USA has been contorted into a minor pain the ass here.

[Hyperion]

My wife probably won't go along.

[egould310]

Probably? So there is a *slight* chance?

[Hyperion]

There's always a chance for everything. There is however, zero chance that I'm going to ask.

[egould310]

I would recommend getting good and drunk.

[Hyperion]

I accomplished that last night. And I've already started accomplishing it again this evening. The Molson on tap here is actually pretty good.

[RBS]

I remember some beer with a dwarf or something on the label, it was pretty good.

[Hyperion]

For instance. Last night my wife wanted a cup to put the rest of her margarita in to take back to our room. They told us they can't do it. Now, the restaurant we were in is on the hotel property! I was actually shocked by this. Then the waitress felt the need to tell me how strict they are in Canada, about everything. I was just like, where the fuck am I? Everyone thinks the US is so strict about everything and uptight, but here it seems to be a lot worse. So anyway, my wife then just asked for a cup, poured in her margarita and we left. I was looking around for the royal mounties to ride into the parking lot and bust us. I have a disappoint. I thought that everywhere in the world is a libertarian paradise compared to Murika.

[Hyperion]

I got that post out of order, I guess I'm headed towards drunk, eh?

[Migrant Log Chipper]

This is true. Years ago I was in Trail, B.C. and we were at a pub. We picked our beers to play pool and the bar wench said "Verboten Amerikaner". We were thinking WTF.

A couple years we took a road trip to Banff and hit up the liquor store seeking Canuckistani suds. Nope, beer truck drivers strike, all they had was fucking Olympia.

[Migrant Log Chipper]

*later*

[Episiarch]

Where in Ontario are you? Ottowa? Toronto? Fucking nowheresville?

[Hyperion]

Niagara. We're talking about going to Toronto tomorrow.

[Episiarch]

The Ripley's museum on the Canadian side is fucking great, check that out. Other than that and the falls, Niagra is pretty boring. You'll have much better food/restaurant options in Toronto, but you won't be able to pop over to the American side for gas, booze, and smokes like you can in Niagara. Ottowa is boring unless you go to the French side, and even that is still pretty boring. Of course, it's been a long time since I was there last so things may have changed.

[Hyperion]

Thanks. Restaurant options here in Niagara are pretty excellent and the weather is gorgeous this week.

But looks like we'll check out Toronto tomorrow. Ottowa is too far for this trip, I have to head back on Friday.

[Jimoxe]

Hit up the duty free store for some good deals on Canadian whiskey. I got 3 one litre bottles of Crown and a sweet cooler for $52 US cash.

[Just say Nikki]

Ottawa is pretty fucking boring.

Toronto is cool.

[Rhywun]

I like Toronto. Some interesting neighborhoods to walk around in and around downtown. When I was kid we always hit the zoo and/or the Science Center which are fantastic if you're into that.

[Jimoxe]

Ontario has sports betting. Well, at least the casinos in The Falls do. Place a wager on the Jets and the under.
Or bet tonights late baseball games.

[Trouser-Pod (The blowhard)]

Because the rules and regulations surrounding college sports can always get more stupid,

Whew! Thank God; I was starting to worry about that!

[Dark Lord of the wood chipper]

What a stupid rule. I mean, it's not like college athletes have ever gotten indebted to gamblers and compromised the integrity of the game or anything.

[Rt. Hon. Judge Woodrow Chipper]

I long for the day the NFL buys NCAA Division 1-A football. Just call it NFL Saturday Tradition or something.

They could even implement a sort of relegation system where the Raiders and Bears get relegated to Saturdays and Ohio State and Alabama move up to Sundays.

[RBS]

Even the Raiders would kick the shit out of the best college teams.

[Hyperion]

The Raiders did just beat the Ravens. I think for the first time, ever. But any future wins will just depend on scoring a lot because they have virtually no secondary. They could actually just use the corners as water boys and it wouldn't matter.

[Rt. Hon. Judge Woodrow Chipper]

You are correct, the Bears wouldn't be able to.

[Episiarch]

And the Seahawks have Kam Chancellor back for their home game against the Bears this Sunday.

(rubs hands gleefully)

[Wasteland Wanderer]

So they might actually win one this year?

Seriously, what the fuck happened, Seahawks?

[Episiarch]

The game against the Rams had a lot of stupid decisions made that caught up with them. Against the Packers, they just couldn't get their offense rolling.

Momentum is a HUGE thing for the Seahawks. They can get it going but until they do they can be strangely terrible. Having Kam back on the defense will make a difference too, but it's really the offense that needs to get rolling.

[Idle Hands]

Arizona looks pretty good this year.

[Idle Hands]

Arizona looks pretty good this year.

[Idle Hands]

Arizona looks pretty good this year.

[egould310]

Ok, bro. We get it. Arizona looks pretty good. Why don't you just go marry Carson Palmer already? Jeesh!

[Idle Hands]

Redskins going to the superbowl.

[Dark Lord of the wood chipper]

Did Dan Snyder buy a bunch of tickets?

[Greg F]

"I'm a huge fan of college sports, even as I recognize the whole system only detracts from the educational mission of schools and totally rips off students who almost always subsidize athletic departments even at big-time sports schools."

With accounting things are not always as they appear.

http://regressing.deadspin.com.....1570827027

Some creative accounting can make the athletics look like they are loosing money when they are in fact generating income.

OK, so if the school decides to put it on paper that $50,000 per year is the cost of a GIA and also determines that it provides $30,000 per athlete in "direct institutional support," then it looks as if the school has been super generous, to the point of providing money to the athletic department to cover more than half the scholarship amount. But if that $50,000 is just a made-up number, unrelated to the actual cost of the scholarship, then this is really just a buy/sell transaction with a spread of $20,000 (which is the net payment by the athletic department to the university).

[Idle Hands]

So what's your point?

[UCrawford]

At the very least, the NCAA, an organization that is imperious as it is idiotic, could actually share some of the bread college sports makes with the athletes themselves.

Or they could just get rid of the prohibitions they put on student-athletes for selling autographs, getting jobs, taking money from boosters (as long as it's declared as income), or any other number of ways that athletes could earn money from their names while in school. It might actually keep some of them in school if they can legally (under NCAA rules) make more than tuition and the token stipend the NCAA now hands out...then some might not have to leave school early to gamble on being selected in the NFL and NBA drafts.

But no...the NCAA would rather petulantly claim that they're "protecting the ideal of amateur status" by limiting the earnings of athletes. Even though all they're doing is trying to pretend that college sports isn't simply a money grab like every other pro sport.

[Brett L]

Easy fix: Coaches can only make whatever double the annual value of the school's compensation package is declared at.

[sloopyinTEXAS]

I'd rather bitch that the pro leagues and their unions prohibit adults from entering their workforce than bitch about a organization that provides tens of thousands of free educations and enhanced college opportunities to young men and women establishing rules people voluntary let agree to.

But that's just me.

[Quincy.]

College athletes can jerk off to what ever they want. It's a free country.

Oh you said "betting". Never mind.

[The Tone Police]

They can give their scholarship to me, if they don't like it.

[XM]

But DFS games are legal, and technically considered to be a game of skill. So if it's not legally gambling, how can the school suspend anyone for not gambling?

[Vapourwear]

What's this about college athletes not getting paid in the subhead? Don't they exchange athletic prowess for an education, and all of the attendant opportunity of the promotion of a college football team? You know stuff like opportunities to be paid even MORE to play games?

To suggest college athletes aren't paid handsomely is ignore an awful lot of not terribly well hidden benefits.

[phil tipster]

i dont see why this would be an issue what difference does it make having them paid. https://betfect.com/betting/american-football/odds