The University of Georgia football program has dismissed a staff member for violating the NCAA’s sports betting policy.
The staffer, who is no longer employed at Georgia, was not identified in the school’s self-report, according to the Athens Banner-Herald on Thursday.
While the bets were placed in 2020, the NCAA violation was discovered, reviewed, and processed in 2023.
“If the staff member is hired by another SEC institution in the future the staff member is required to complete a sports gambling education program/session, and the hiring institution is required to submit a written plan to the Conference office for monitoring the staff member to assure he does not commit similar violations in the future,” Georgia wrote in its violations summary.
The infraction is considered a Level III violation, the second-least severe category in the NCAA’s punishment hierarchy.
In 2022, Georgia reported that a student-athlete placed a wager on a fantasy sports app, also considered a Level III infraction.
Integrity monitoring
Georgia’s reporting of the sports betting violation was the only one involving gambling in the list of 23 infractions from the 2023-24 scholastic season that were turned into the NCAA.
The NCAA bans “participation in sports betting activities” and prohibits “providing information to individuals involved in or associated with any type of sports betting activities concerning intercollegiate, amateur or professional athletics competition,” according to its website.
The NCAA monitors 13,000 games annually and works to educate student-athletes, employees of athletic programs, and officials to prevent gambling issues through the EPIC Risk Management partnership.
Getting caught
This Georgia sports betting scandal is one of the tamer ones to hit the NCAA over the last year or so.
Last summer, former Alabama baseball head coach Brad Bohannon was fired after he provided starting lineup information to a known gambler before a game.
Bohannon was handed a 15-year show cause and three-year probation by the NCAA earlier this year.
Last year, more than 30 athletes and staff members from Iowa and Iowa State were charged criminally and/or lost NCAA eligibility after betting on games.
More recently, former Toronto Raptors center Jontay Porter received a lifetime ban for wagering on games and providing information to bettors. Porter pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud last week and faces possible jail time.
