I found this in my local newspaper and I truly believe this is a very good read for all of us to think about...
Bet on it: There’s more to college gambling than meets the eye
By BOB MOLINARO, The Virginian-Pilot
May 16, 2004
In the course of watching the average college football game, we see a fair share of botched plays and curious developments.
Can any of us tell the difference between honest mistakes and staged mishaps?
Is everything we’re watching on the up and up? Was that fumble caused by a hard hit? Or did the tailback give away the ball to get a bookie off his back?
Could any of us know, just from watching, if a player intentionally missed a tackle, or deliberately allowed a punt to go over his head, or blatantly hooked a field goal attempt wide?
The NCAA just released the results of a comprehensive survey on sports wagering in which 1.1 percent of football players reported actually taking money for playing poorly in games.
The study also reveals that 2.3 percent of college football players admitted they were asked to influence the outcome of games because of gambling debts, with 1.4 percent saying they altered their performance to affect the score.
Point shaving is what we’re talking about.
You can see how a player who is also a plunger could rationalize shaving. He isn’t losing the game, mind you, just adjusting the point spread. It’s a slippery slope.
“We must take seriously,” NCAA president Myles Brand said, “the threat to the integrity of the game.”
Were it not for this study and the rare gambling scandal to grab our attention just briefly, people who watch the games would be oblivious to the threat.
Ferreting out gambling cheats in the locker room is like playing a game of Where’s Waldo.
The job is harder still when the rabid fan base is disinclined to be appalled. Gambling, after all, is the true national sport. Or epidemic, if you prefer.
“Why don’t the newspapers run whores’ phone numbers?” Bob Knight said a few years before Brand, then Indiana president, fired him as Hoosiers basketball coach. “They run odds and point spreads on all the games. Is betting on basketball, football or baseball less illegal than prostitution?”
This is a noble rant, but judging from the ease with which our society accepts sports gambling, it is an outdated one.
In the context of this culture, it shouldn’t be surprising that football players — or any athletes — like to gamble. Everybody else does it, or so it seems. And gambling is as prevalent on campus as it is on the Internet.
Gambling is pervasive in American life. Not that long ago, compulsive betting on games was considered insidious. Now, more and more people believe getting in on the action is a benign vice, if a vice at all.
The NCAA’s recent concerns are just a small part of the big picture. As in the case of the NFL, it would be disingenuous, if not downright hypocritical, for the NCAA to pretend gambling does not contribute heavily to the popularity of its product. People are kidding themselves if they think gambling isn’t what brings a large percentage of fans to football.
Pro players, living comfortably on big salaries, are alleged to be more resistant to the enticements of fixers. College jocks, who see their sweat feed the schools’ revenue streams, are more susceptible to the bookie’s pitch.
The big-time college system, designed to make money for everyone but the athletes, creates a climate in which players seek their own underground source of spending money.
The NCAA’s task force wants to do something before a major betting scandal erupts. Before it’s discovered that players threw a game on orders from a fixer.
Not that we can know with any degree of certainty that this hasn’t already happened. What we don’t understand about gambling’s impact on our sports could fill a Vegas casino.
“I do not now see evidence that the integrity of the game has been irrevocably compromised,” said Brand. “But the risk is real.”
How real? The NCAA would rather not take odds on that.
Bet on it: There’s more to college gambling than meets the eye
By BOB MOLINARO, The Virginian-Pilot
May 16, 2004
In the course of watching the average college football game, we see a fair share of botched plays and curious developments.
Can any of us tell the difference between honest mistakes and staged mishaps?
Is everything we’re watching on the up and up? Was that fumble caused by a hard hit? Or did the tailback give away the ball to get a bookie off his back?
Could any of us know, just from watching, if a player intentionally missed a tackle, or deliberately allowed a punt to go over his head, or blatantly hooked a field goal attempt wide?
The NCAA just released the results of a comprehensive survey on sports wagering in which 1.1 percent of football players reported actually taking money for playing poorly in games.
The study also reveals that 2.3 percent of college football players admitted they were asked to influence the outcome of games because of gambling debts, with 1.4 percent saying they altered their performance to affect the score.
Point shaving is what we’re talking about.
You can see how a player who is also a plunger could rationalize shaving. He isn’t losing the game, mind you, just adjusting the point spread. It’s a slippery slope.
“We must take seriously,” NCAA president Myles Brand said, “the threat to the integrity of the game.”
Were it not for this study and the rare gambling scandal to grab our attention just briefly, people who watch the games would be oblivious to the threat.
Ferreting out gambling cheats in the locker room is like playing a game of Where’s Waldo.
The job is harder still when the rabid fan base is disinclined to be appalled. Gambling, after all, is the true national sport. Or epidemic, if you prefer.
“Why don’t the newspapers run whores’ phone numbers?” Bob Knight said a few years before Brand, then Indiana president, fired him as Hoosiers basketball coach. “They run odds and point spreads on all the games. Is betting on basketball, football or baseball less illegal than prostitution?”
This is a noble rant, but judging from the ease with which our society accepts sports gambling, it is an outdated one.
In the context of this culture, it shouldn’t be surprising that football players — or any athletes — like to gamble. Everybody else does it, or so it seems. And gambling is as prevalent on campus as it is on the Internet.
Gambling is pervasive in American life. Not that long ago, compulsive betting on games was considered insidious. Now, more and more people believe getting in on the action is a benign vice, if a vice at all.
The NCAA’s recent concerns are just a small part of the big picture. As in the case of the NFL, it would be disingenuous, if not downright hypocritical, for the NCAA to pretend gambling does not contribute heavily to the popularity of its product. People are kidding themselves if they think gambling isn’t what brings a large percentage of fans to football.
Pro players, living comfortably on big salaries, are alleged to be more resistant to the enticements of fixers. College jocks, who see their sweat feed the schools’ revenue streams, are more susceptible to the bookie’s pitch.
The big-time college system, designed to make money for everyone but the athletes, creates a climate in which players seek their own underground source of spending money.
The NCAA’s task force wants to do something before a major betting scandal erupts. Before it’s discovered that players threw a game on orders from a fixer.
Not that we can know with any degree of certainty that this hasn’t already happened. What we don’t understand about gambling’s impact on our sports could fill a Vegas casino.
“I do not now see evidence that the integrity of the game has been irrevocably compromised,” said Brand. “But the risk is real.”
How real? The NCAA would rather not take odds on that.
