Credit: Maria Lysaker-Imagn Images
By Chris Marler
Earlier this month, the NCAA was close to adopting a decision that would allow student-athletes to be allowed to gamble on professional sports. The decision was approved at the Division I level on October 8. Two weeks later on October 22, the Division II and Division III levels also approved the move.
The changes were supposed to take effect starting Saturday, November 1.
It’s a few weeks later, and that decision is being delayed. And it’s partially due to SEC commissioner Greg Sankey voicing his opinion on the potential problems it could create.
Sankey sent a memo to the NCAA asking to rethink the decision and calling it a “major step in the wrong direction.”
NEW: SEC commissioner Greg Sankey has asked the NCAA to rescind its ruling allowing college players and staffers to bet on pro sports, @RossDellenger reports❌
Sankey says it’s a “major step in the wrong direction.”https://t.co/d4cX2Dm3e7 pic.twitter.com/IfOhQEbb8V
— On3 (@On3sports) October 28, 2025
“We are equally concerned about the vulnerability of our student-athletes. The combination of accessible mobile betting, financial pressures, and social influence makes the possibility of personal gambling losses — and the potential for exploitation — very real,” Sankey’s letter reads, per Yahoo! Sports. “… It is foreseeable that college athletes, with far fewer resources and far greater outside influence, can be involved in compromising circumstances.”
Following the October 22 approval from the lower Divisions of the NCAA, a gambling scandal bombshell was dropped from the NBA: players throwing games for prop bets, head coaches involved in fraudulent poker games, and all of it involving the mob and in turn the FBI.
The delay will push back the decision by 30 days. The next step will be whether or not less than 75 percent of the DI cabinet wants to adopt the decision of approval. That would then be enough to rescind the proposal as a whole.
That decision will be updated on November 22.
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