The NCAA is delaying its decision to permit athletic department staff and student-athletes to wager on professional sports.

Student-athletes, coaches, team members including trainers and administrative staff, and athletic department administrators will be allowed to wager on professional sports through legal channels, according to an announcement made last week by the college sports governing body. The plan was approved by the Division II and III Management Councils as well as the Division I Administrative Committee.

All college athletes, as well as the aforementioned team and AD staff, are currently prohibited from placing bets on any sport, whether it be professional or collegiate. The NCAA said on Tuesday that a DI university had submitted a rescinding request.

If an ordinance is passed by less than a 75% majority of the 19-member Division I Cabinet, member schools may move to seek its revocation under DI regulations.

The NBA was shaken by a significant sports gambling scandal, which is why there was a delay. A number of players and coaches allegedly took part in insider betting schemes where players staged injuries and threw games, according to federal authorities. It is alleged that at least two coaches sold insider knowledge about athletes' injury statuses. 

SEC Commissioner Requests Decision Revocation

The Southeastern Conference's commissioner is Greg Sankey. One of the most powerful people in collegiate athletics is the SEC leader.

Sankey is one of the people that are against the NCAA permitting student-athletes to wager on professional sports.

"On behalf of our universities, I write to urge action by the NCAA Division I Board of Directors to rescind this change and reaffirm the Association’s commitment to maintaining strong national standards that keep collegiate participants separated from sports wagering activity at every level. If there are legal or practical concerns about the prior policy, those should be addressed through careful refinement — not through wholesale removal of the guardrails that have long supported the integrity of games and the well-being of those who participate,” Sankey wrote.

The change's proponents claim that the current regulation has put institutions and the NCAA under needless surveillance burden. In 24 different sports, almost 1,000 universities compete in the NCAA. More than 540K students participate in athletics.

Using third-party monitors like IC360, Sportradar, and Genius Sports is a huge and expensive operation that ensures none of them are betting on every sport. These analytics companies are also unable to keep an eye on the majority of unregulated offshore bookmakers.

Another argument is that, generally speaking, collegiate athletes have little power to affect how a professional game turns out. The main goal of prohibiting college athletes from engaging in sports betting is to safeguard the integrity of collegiate athletics.

Date of New Implementation 

The NCAA states that the new legislation will now take effect on Saturday, November 22, unless the NCAA Division I Board of Directors agrees with Sankey and chooses to revoke the student-athlete betting authorization on professional sports.

Conferences like Sankey's SEC, as well as schools and universities, would still have the authority to forbid their players and team members from placing bets on professional sports if the board were to approve the plan.