What Does Legalized Sports Gambling Mean For College Football?

Gambling on college sports has been around as long as college sports themselves, but with the Supreme Court’s decision back in May to give states the right to legalize sports betting, it’ll come out of the shadows and be in the forefront as much as ever this season.

For USC head coach Clay Helton, that doesn’t really change much.

“It's something that's for us been an educational piece for a number of years,” Helton said recently. “That's part of a compliance department and coaching staff responsibility is to always educate your players on sports betting.

“This is my 24th year of college football coaching, and that's been every year, has been that education of understanding college wagering. College betting has become a part of our society and is allowed, but the educational piece for our players has been something that's been going on for a long time and will continue to.”

But other coaches believe it needs to be stressed even more now.

“I think it's, first and foremost, important that we educate our guys and the understanding of the issues that surround gambling and understand from a standpoint of what may end up happening to them in dorms, people asking them questions that maybe they've never been asked before,” Northwestern head coach Pat Fitzgerald said. “These new instant friends that they have as true freshmen, things of that nature. So, the education piece is really going to be important.”

Stanford head coach David Shaw feels the same way.

“I have a lot of concerns about sports betting,” Shaw said. “I don't care about the actual wagering. Who cares? I don't care. Doesn't affect me one bit. It's those unscrupulous individuals that want to influence the games, influence the people involved in the games. That's where you get worried. That's where you worry about the integrity of our game when it comes to those individuals that don't care about the student-athletes, don't care about the game. They only care about their monetary end and how they can improve their stance that's where you worry.”

Shaw is in favor of getting in front of any potential issues to protect the student-athletes.

“I think we need to educate our young people,” he added. “I think we need to empower, whether it's the NCAA or have some injunction with -- starting with the State Department and what is legal, what is illegal, what is punishable, because one of the criticisms of the NCAA, which is founded, is they don't have subpoena power. Now, if this is such a big issue, which we're all kind of nervous about and our government can step in and say, ‘Great, the people that cross the line, these are federal offenses, now we have some covers for those people that do something wrong.’

“Now it's not just the NCAA trying to find out, now we have officials coming in, and there is actual jail time on the table for those people that unduly influence and put some of our people in a difficult position. The punishments need to be real in order to keep the game clean and safe.”

Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh’s advice to his players will be simple.

“Don't associate with gamblers, avoid it like the plague,” he said. “Don't walk away from that, run.”

Harbaugh recalled a personal friend who gave him that type of advice.

“He goes, ‘I wouldn't walk away from that investment, I'd run,’” Harbaugh continued. “That's always stuck with me. That's the same advice I would give players as it relates to gambling and any form or fashion.”

Harbaugh, infamous for his refusal to issue depth charts in the past, wasn’t bothered by the idea of college teams being required to issue injury reports the way NFL teams are.

“I would be fine with that,” he said. “Want to do an injury report? We can do an injury report.”

For Helton, again, he said that wouldn’t require much change for the Trojans.

“I've always tried to be extremely honest with the media as far as injuries and things like that and giving that information out so our players aren't hounded by that and the pressure is taken off of them for that information to be out there,” said Helton.

Fitzgerald, meanwhile, admitted to not always being quite as forthright as Helton claimed to be.

“I've been accused of sometimes being honest and sometimes being less than honest, I would agree with that,” he said. “If we move forward to where we have to have a fully transparent conference-wide or national one, I'd have no problem with that, as long as we adhere to it.”

But Fitzgerald stressed the importance of making sure everybody adheres to it.

“There needs to be accountability,” he added. “If there's not accountability to it, then I'll do whatever I have to do to protect our players, first and foremost, and protect our program second, in full disclosure of transparency.”

For his part, Shaw says he would not be comfortable with injury reports for college teams.

“I coached in the NFL for nine years, and there is a stark difference between working with professionals and working with college kids,” Shaw said. “I do not feel right giving out medical information of a 19-year-old. I think it's wrong in any way, shape or form. If there's something the young man and his family want to release, that's up to them. It's his health.

“But as far as institutionally talking about a young person's health, we have HIPAA laws that prohibit that. I think it's wrong, it's unnecessary, and I think it would be catering towards the gambling and the betting, which we can't, in my opinion, do that. I think we need to be catering towards what's best for our young people and not worried about a betting line.”

But Shaw would be fine giving out status updates of players without mentioning specific ailments.

“That's what I do anyway,” he said. “I know some coaches are not comfortable with that. You guys get the stone face from them. They don't tell you. If I know a guy's going to be out, I say he's out. If I know there is a chance he's going to play, there is a chance. If I know it's going to be a game-time decision, it's going to be a game-time decision. I try not to play those games with the media. We don't get into specifics anyway.”

However, he doesn’t believe schools should be required to do so, especially not as a way to help gamblers.

“I think it's up to each program to do that the way they feel it's necessary. And I don't believe it should change based on the betting laws changing. I don't think it's right.”