Student-athletes were reminded of NCAA sports wagering violations

With the Nicholls State University women’s basketball team heading into the

National Collegiate Athletics Association Division I tournament this weekend in the
heat of March Madness, student-athletes at Nicholls were warned of the
consequences that they could face for participating in sports wagering.

According to the NCAA’s website, “The NCAA opposes all forms of legal and illegal
sports wagering, which has the potential to undermine the integrity of sports
contests and jeopardizes the welfare of student-athletes and the intercollegiate
athletics community.”

Despite the general statement on sports wagering provided by the NCAA, sports
wagering can take place in many different forms, and student-athletes must be
informed of the variety of ways that gambling can affect their athletic eligibility.

This is exactly why Andrew Kearney, Assistant Athletic Director for Compliance,
sent out an email to the entire student body this Tuesday, Mar. 13 to remind them
about what the NCAA prohibits when it comes to placing bets on post-season
basketball tournaments and other sporting events.

According to Kearney, a big part of his job is making sure he informs student-
athletes about the little things that can affect their eligibility in the NCAA.

“It’s little things, and I try to always remind student-athletes at the beginning of the
year that you don’t actually have to wager anything to be in violation, ” Kearney said.
“Student-athletes are not allowed to do things that are only for student-athletes. You
can’t receive a benefit that the rest of the student body can’t receive. Its little things
like that.”

Kearney said that even if an athlete enters a drawing where they do not place a
wager but could potentially win something of tangible value, they could be violating
the laws of the NCAA.

“At one point, for some contests, you had to share that you had entered a drawing on
Facebook. If you share that you had entered, then it’s out there. Once that is out
there, I have no idea who is seeing that.”

Kearney explained that while participating in a free contest with a very small chance
of winning something may seem like an innocent and fun activity for athletes, when
they post about these things online, they can become exposed for doing something
that the NCAA prohibits; even if they were breaking the rules unintentionally.

“It seems pretty innocent to enter a free bracket with the chance to win a million
dollars,” Kearney said. You don’t think about it because its very innocent, you can do

it in three minutes and no one is going to find out. This includes fantasy leagues
even though it seems innocent. When someone does find out, it can present some
issues.”

One example Kearney used was a case where a student-athlete at Nicholls had
posted about betting on a big basketball game on social media. Upon further
investigation, the bet had only been for pushups. If the bet had been on something of
tangible value, the student-athlete would have been breaking the rules by betting.

Kearney made the important clarification that the NCAA only prohibits sports
wagering on NCAA sports; not all forms of gambling and betting.

“Its only things that there are NCAA championships in. Women’s bowling is an NCAA
sport, so you can’t bet on women’s bowling. Horse racing is not [an NCAA sport].
With only one director of compliance for over 350 student-athletes at Nicholls,
Kearney said the most important part of his job is trying to help student-athletes
develop a mindset where they feel comfortable asking questions about rules and
regulations, and being able to contact him or their coaches if they have questions
regarding compliance.

“I’m in charge of both monitoring education and making sure we follow all the NCAA
Southland Conference rules. A lot of that is in the NCAA manual, which is over 300
pages long,” Kearney said. “When I meet with teams at the beginning of the year, I
try and talk about the big things and make people think and say, ‘Well, can I do this
and should we be doing this?’ There’s a lot in that manual, and even don’t know
everything.”

Due to the depth and specificity of the NCAA manual, Kearney said he tries to reach
out to teams on campus with the most important and relevant information he can
provide; especially during a time like this when all the hype is on basketball.

“For a women’s basketball student-athlete during the tournament, if they go to
Pepper’s and someone says ‘hey, have a piece of pizza on me,’ that’s a good piece of
pizza and you want to eat the pizza for free, but you have to pay for it,” Kearney said.
“It’s those little things like that, like, is anyone going to find out? Probably not, but
its important to try and get them to think in the right mindset.”

By sending reminders and helping students become more educated on NCAA
regulations, Kearney said he hopes to foster a better environment for athletic
compliance at Nicholls.