March Madness might be over, but the NCAA is not letting off their push to protect players.
On Friday, the NCAA published some of the data gathered during the latest men's and women's tournaments, which shows the unfortunate actions of many angry fans. Specifically, Signify Group studied roughly 1000 students, 280 coaches, and 64 teams during March Madness. They flagged 54,000 messages, although only 4,000 were confirmed as harassment.
The results were eye-opening but unfortunately, unsurprising. If you were a “high-profile” player, you had a 33% chance of getting an abusive message from a bettor, with 90% of the harassment coming from online platforms
The gender disparity is also obvious, with female basketball players receiving around three times more harassment than their male counterparts.
NCAA’s crusade to fix betting
So far this year, the NCAA has plenty of wins to point to as they try to reform the sports betting industry.
“The NCAA will continue to do its part to lead in this space to identify practical solutions to guard against the dangers of sports betting, such as harassment,” said Morgan Wynne, vice chair of the Division I Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, and Charlie Baker, commissioner of the NCAA.
The NCAA has lobbied states like Ohio, Maryland, Vermont, and Louisiana to remove college player prop bets, while West Virginia is leaning on a way to ban bettors who exhibit abusive behavior.
The statement also quoted North Carolina Tar Heels forward Armando Bacot, as he detailed some of the messages he received after games. The NCAA is hoping that North Carolina (and New Jersey) will also prohibit college prop bets.
It should be noted that if a state bans these kinds of bets, those looking to wager on an individual player can still do so offshore with an unregulated book.
