NCAA steps up antigambling efforts

[E.T.]

NCAA steps up antigambling efforts

By STEVE HERMAN, AP Sports Writer

January 6, 2006

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- The NCAA will bolster its antigambling message at this season's NCAA basketball tournaments after a study showed more than two-thirds of male college athletes and nearly half the female athletes gambled in some form.

FBI agents will talk to each of the 32 teams in the regional rounds of the men's and women's tournaments. Previously, warnings were given only at the Final Fours.

"The study shows it is a problem. As such, we're trying to be proactive. Before problems happen, let's handle it," the NCAA's Rachel Newman-Baker said Friday at the start of the association's annual convention.

The latest NCAA study found 69 percent of male college athletes and 47 percent of female athletes participated in some kind of gambling.

More than 2,300 delegates registered for the four days of meetings, which include sessions on academic reform, basketball tournament selection, racial and gender hiring and freshman eligibility. NCAA president Myles Brand will give his State of the Association address Saturday.

Surgeon General Richard Carmona urged delegates on Friday to promote physical fitness on their campuses for the entire student body. Television, computers and electronic games have created a generation that is not getting enough exercise, he said.

"We have a catastrophic epidemic in our midst," Carmona said.

"The NCAA is shaping the future of our nation. ... You raise role models (in the athletes) and have the potential to take the lead," he said.

Another session Friday focused on colleges' need to balance their employees' work and family obligations, circumstances that often hamper women in pursuit of promotions and tenure, said Claire Van Ummersen, vice president and director of the Office of Women in Higher Education.

"Think about ways you can work together to change the culture to allow it to be possible to make time for things beyond work that are important to you," she told delegates. "Figure out how to allow women to have flexible options to balance family and work."

The NCAA is promoting increased gambling awareness, even for such seemingly trivial matters as tournament pools and Internet fantasy leagues, said Newman-Baker, the NCAA's director of Agent, Gambling and Amateurism Activities.

"They need to understand what the ramifications are and that it can lead to much bigger things," she said. "They don't know when to stop, when to draw the line."

The NCAA study surveyed almost 21,000 athletes and reflected data collected for the 2001-02 school year.

The greatest participation in any form of gambling -- including lottery tickets, pools and betting on college and pro games -- was in Division III, with 76 percent of male athletes and 51 percent of female athletes. The figures were 63 percent and 42 percent, respectively, in Division I and 67 percent and 51 percent in Division II. Overall, 21 percent of the men and 6 percent of the women reported betting on college sports.

Male golfers accounted for the biggest individual share of those among all NCAA divisions who bet on any college or pro sport -- 49 percent. The largest for any women's sport also was golf, at 16 percent.

NCAA penalties for gambling include the loss of one year of eligibility, or permanent ineligibility if it involves betting on the athlete's own school or point-shaving. Secondary infractions, such as participating in a pool, would be handled separately, Newman-Baker said.

On Saturday, the NCAA's Gerald Ford Award will be presented to former Sen. Birch Bayh, D-Ind., an author of the Title IX legislation on gender equity, and former UCLA basketball coach John Wooden.

[smazza]

what is the fuss

the kids gotta make some money

what hypocrites