In a move that sheds light on NCAA rules on sports betting, the association has fined the University of North Carolina Greensboro after finding that two school staffers made sports bets including on the university’s Spartans basketball team.
The association announced the sanctions as part of negotiated resolution agreement approved by the association’s Division I Committee on Infractions panel.
“The university and the NCAA enforcement staff agreed that the university failed to monitor and ensure compliance with NCAA rules when seven staff members did not initially report the activities of one of the two men, a women’s assistant basketball coach,” the association said in a press release. “The former assistant coach also violated NCAA ethical conduct rules when he did not cooperate with the NCAA investigation.”
The NCAA said six members of the school’s athletics department knew of the bets, but only two actually made the wagers.
The school’s athletics department received three years of probation and a $15,000 fine among other actions. Negotiated resolutions cannot be appealed.
According to the release, a former assistant coach for the women’s basketball team told investigators that “he placed an extensive number of online wagers on professional and college sports, including games involving the university’s men’s basketball team.”
The coach, however, eventually refused to cooperate with investigators and the association does not know “the full extent” of his wagering activities, the release said.
A former assistant director of UNC Greensboro’s fundraising organization was also found to have wagered “small amounts” online on professional and college sports, including at least one bet on the Spartans’ men’s basketball team.
The negotiated settlement was one of the first approved by the NCAA under new guidelines. The case also highlights the association’s restrictions on sports betting.
An association spokesperson, speaking to the website thelines.com, said individuals who fall within four categories are prohibited from wagering on any sport or provide information to individuals who are involved with “sports wagering activities.”
They include staff members of an institution’s athletics department, non-athletics department staff members who have responsibilities within or over the athletics department, staff members of a conference office and student-athletes.
