Sports betting is becoming increasingly omnipresent as more and more states legalize the practice. That poses new challenges for sports leagues and executives as they look to protect the integrity of their respective games.
NCAA president Charlie Baker is among those forward-looking executives worried about how gambling could impact his industry. That’s part of the reason that he is taking a stand against something he believes could be a problematic betting practice at the college level: prop bets.
Baker issued a statement through the NCAA’s PR X account (formerly Twitter) between the first and second weekends of March Madness, the governing body’s largest event, to compel states with legalized betting to consider dropping college sports prop bets from their offerings.
Baker’s purpose in pursuing this action is not to quash the fun or success some bettors have in targeting those props. Instead, it’s all about protecting the NCAA’s student-athletes from betting-related threats and harassment.
Here’s what to know about Baker’s statement and his mission.
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Why the NCAA wants states to disallow college sports prop betting
Baker explained in his statement that disallowing college sports prop bets serves as a step to protect college athletes.
“Sports betting issues are on the rise across the country with prop bets continuing to threaten the integrity of competition and leading to student-athletes and professional athletes getting harassed,” Baker wrote. “The NCAA has been working with states to deal with these threats and many are responding by banning college prop bets.”
Countless cases of player harassment have emerged since the legalization of sports gambling has become more widespread. An ESPN story from 2023 outlined abuses suffered by TCU’s Damion Baugh, Baylor’s Adam Flagler, and unnamed players from Pepperdine and Furman, among others, when they were on the losing side of a bettor’s wager.
Included among those comments:
- “Your throat will be severed open with a dull knife.”
- “Your entire family will be beheaded and burned alive.”
- “Watch your back, you’re a dead man walking.”
- “I hope you die you motherf—er.”
Players expressed that these messages negatively impacted their mental health. Iowa’s Connor McCaffrey sought counseling to help him deal with social media abuse. He also attributed the uptick in cyberbullying to the legalization of sports gambling.
“It’s very prevalent,” he said of the social media abuse. “And 100 percent, there’s been an uptick in the last year or two.”
Dayton coach Anthony Grant also bemoaned sports gambling’s impact on the public’s treatment of players just three weeks after Ohio legalized sports betting.
“When we have people that make it about themselves and attack kids because of their own agenda, it sickens me,” Grant said, per News 5 Cleveland. “They have families. They don’t deserve that. Mental health is real.”
That led Ohio Governor Mike DeWine to ban college sports prop bets in the state. Baker is hoping he can have similar success in convincing other states to regulate the practice and dissuade bettors from targeting student-athletes with their harassment.
“This week we will be contacting officials across the country in states that still allow these bets and ask them to join Ohio, Vermont, Maryland, and many others and remove college prop bets from all betting markets,” Baker said in Wednesday’s statement. “The NCAA is drawing the line on sports betting to protect student-athletes and to protect the integrity of the game — issues across the country these last several days show there is more work to be done.”
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Recent sports betting scandals
Of course, it’s hard to ignore the timing of Baker’s statement. Sure, it came amid a month where Americans are expected to legally wager $ 2.72 billion on college basketball games, but it also came as betting scandals rocked two other sports.
In MLB, the Dodgers fired Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter Ippei Mizuhara after discovering Mizuhara engaged in a “massive theft” of Ohtani’s funds to bet on sports illegally.
Ohtani denied knowledge of Mizuhara’s actions and said he was “beyond shocked” that his friend and interpreter stole from him. Nonetheless, MLB is investigating Ohtani to ensure that his account is truthful and to make sure that the Dodgers’ $ 700 million star had no involvement in betting on baseball in any way.
Elsewhere, the NBA began investigating Raptors forward Jontay Porter after irregularities arose involving prop bets on Porter for games on Jan. 26 and March 20. A disproportionate number of wagers were placed on UNDER bets for each of those contests; Porter notably played just four minutes on March 20 before leaving the game with an eye injury.
The investigations into Ohtani and Porter are ongoing, but each circumstance serves as a cautionary tale about players and team personnel attempting to skirt gambling rules and regulations. Baker likely wants to avoid having any sort of similar situation arise — especially one akin to the accusations against Porter — so from that standpoint, targeting a prop bet ban makes sense.
MORE: Legal expert explains what’s next in Shohei Ohtani interpreter case
Which states offer college sports prop bets?
There are only four states — and one region — that offer unrestricted prop bets on college sporting events. They are as follows, per The Action Network:
- Kansas
- Louisiana
- Michigan
- Washington D.C.
- Wyoming
All other states that offer prop bets surrounding college games have some sort of restriction, whether it involves the time during which you can bet on props or if bets about in-state teams are not allowed. Below is a run-down of those states and the restrictions within them.
| State | Restriction |
| Connecticut | No props on Connecticut teams |
| Illinois | No props on Illinois teams |
| Indiana | No pre-game props |
| Iowa | No props on Iowa teams |
| New Jersey | No props on New Jersey teams |
| New Hampshire | No props on New Hampshire teams |
| Rhode Island | No props on Rhode Island teams |
Finally, 11 states allow no college sports prop bets. They are as follows:
- Arizona
- Colorado
- Maryland
- Massachusetts
- Ohio
- Oregon
- New York
- Pennsylvania
- Tennessee
- Virginia
- West Virginia
All unlisted states have not yet legalized sports gambling.
