Karin Michel
Associate Editor
Loyola University Chicago School of Law, JD 2025
As March Madness takes center stage, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is placing its focus on sports betting and how to best protect those involved. On March 19, the NCAA announced its Draw the Line Campaign, which prioritizes student-athlete education on the effects of sports betting and addresses the issues associated with problem gambling. The NCAA has actively sought to address sports betting since losing the 2018 Supreme Court case Murphy v. NCAA, where the Court found that federal laws could not restrict a state from authorizing sports betting due to state sovereignty. This ruling led to 38 states and the District of Columbia legalizing some form of sports gambling, 29 of which allow online betting. The Draw the Line campaign comes after an announcement last fall that the NCAA would begin advocating for updated sports betting laws in state legislatures to protect student-athletes and the integrity of NCAA competition.
Launching the Draw the Line Campaign: a focus on education and awareness
The campaign launched by the NCAA relies on a 2023 NCAA study that found that despite age and geographic restrictions, 67% of college students have engaged in some form of sports betting. The campaign targets college students and will run across social media channels, an effort to combat the advertisements that the college students reported seeing for sports betting. The NCAA is also providing member institutions and conferences with a toolkit to utilize the resources and extend the campaign to their campuses. However, it does not appear that the NCAA is making any member institutions adopt the campaign. The campaign is focused on educating student athletes and those who engage in sports betting, which is an important piece of making sports betting safer, but does little to actually regulate the space.
Using state legislatures to regulate sports betting
While the education provided by the Draw the Line campaign is important, the NCAA’s efforts with state legislators represent the only way to guarantee regulation on sports gambling. The NCAA surveyed student-athletes, reviewed the laws and regulations around the country, and met with stakeholders to create model legislative provisions that states should pass. Each provision the NCAA proposes is currently in place in at least one state but not all, which concerns the NCAA as it creates risks for the student-athletes and the integrity of the games. The NCAA has been working with lawmakers in states that are still considering legalizing sports gambling, as well as working to update the provisions in states that have already legalized it.
One of the main focuses of the NCAA is protecting student-athletes from harassment and coercion from sports bettors. It acknowledges the high emotions associated with gambling, and are concerned with student-athletes facing retaliation from fans that lost or bettors trying to coerce athletes into affecting outcomes. To combat this, the NCAA proposes in its model provisions mandatory reporting hotlines for gaming commissions, the power for gambling authorities to impose restrictions on those suspected of harassment or coercion, mandatory anti-harassment systems that monitor for suspect behavior and report it to law enforcement, and mandatory bettor education. The NCAA has also suggested removing certain player-specific bets based upon their performance, which can make individual athletes susceptible to harassment.
The other priority for the NCAA is protecting competition integrity. To accomplish this, the NCAA proposes that states create prohibited bettors lists of people or entities who cannot wager on college sports, allow sports governing bodies to advise on the betting markets, enforce the age limit of 21 years or older, require betting advertisements include information about the harassment hotline, and provide funding to support educating the student population and investigating unregulated betting markets.
Why states should be listening to the NCAA
These provisions suggested by the NCAA are not intended to negatively impact the emergence of sports betting, but to make it safer and more regulated. NCAA President Charlie Baker has even acknowledged that sports betting has increased interest in sports of all kinds, which benefits the NCAA, but emphasized that it should not come at the cost of the safety of players or the integrity of the games. The ruling in Murphy v. NCAA established that federal legislation to regulate sports betting would infringe upon state sovereignty. It is therefore up to the states to ensure that greed does not override safety regulations for players, coaches, and officials. The NCAA has been famously greedy when it comes to revenue generated by college sports, but in terms of sports betting, its concerns are valid. The lack of enforcement around age and geographic restrictions leaves vulnerable populations susceptible to problem gambling. Each state having different legislation means that student-athletes in certain states are more protected than others. But most importantly, the safety of student-athletes is at risk as sports betting continues to grow, with few repercussions for those who harass and coerce them. States should be enacting these provisions because they aim solely to curtail illegal practices and ensure that sports betting is safe for everyone.