Iowa State player bet against his own team

Ross Hodgeson · August 12, 2023

Mean Green 93-98 · August 12, 2023

The massive expansion and promotion of legalized gambling in college sports is going to have some obvious consequences.

outoftown · August 12, 2023

I think I will have it both ways here:

Something like this was absolutely going to happen with the current state of gambling, and it is definitely on the lawmakers that they allowed gambling on non-professional sports (which CFB is at least partially non-professional, and most importantly with young folks who are not that smart yet), and it was really very obvious this was coming somewhere to some kid stupid enough to do this.

On the other hand you really have to be dumb to think you can get away with that in modern "everybody is tracked" days. Then again nobody should be surprised to find 18-22 year olds are sometimes really dumb. In fact one assistant coach even got hit. And from any sports authority's perspective , you really can't let this one slide, as it kills whatever integrity the actual games still have (the NBA, MLB or NFL wouldn't either). You allow it, you don't have viable product anymore. So those folks will get banned for life. And in Iowa apparently they may also end in jail. Its just sad that has to happen for just a few bucks.

On top of everything... he lost the bet

Edited August 12, 2023 by outoftown

meanrob · August 12, 2023

1 hour ago, Mean Green 93-98 said:

The massive expansion and promotion of legalized gambling in college sports is going to have some obvious consequences.

Just curious, what consequences do you mean?

Mean Green 93-98 · August 12, 2023

9 minutes ago, meanrob said:

Just curious, what consequences do you mean?

Exactly what we find in the Iowa State issues. It's going to affect the integrity of the game. Even if it only does so directly, as it did here, in isolated situations; it's going to bring new temptations to many athletes and coaches, and it's going to bring other events into question--"why did that tackle miss that easy block?", etc.

meanrob · August 12, 2023

There’s no doubt issues will happen but we’ve had numerous point shaving scandals when betting was illegal. And I guarantee players have bet on games in the past, just no way to find out.

Players will have to learn the hard way, you can’t do this.

I can’t see any scenario where a coach gets involved, they make too much money.

And yes, I sometimes bet, mostly on football and always in person at a local casino. Like other things in our society, you don’t follow the rules you suffer the consequences.

Mean Green 93-98 · August 12, 2023

Numerous? I mean, it's happened, but it's not like it's been happening often. At least, I don't remember of much in recent decades. Gambling has become a much more public and focal part of college sports than it's ever been, and taking in many more dollars than it ever has. And it seems to me all that would naturally open doors. Yes, if players understand the consequences are bad enough to make it not worth it, they'll be less inclined to do it. But if more and more dollars get thrown at them to somehow compromise games, more of them will probably do it anyway.

meanrob · August 12, 2023

5 minutes ago, Mean Green 93-98 said:

Numerous? I mean, it's happened, but it's not like it's been happening often. At least, I don't remember of much in recent decades. Gambling has become a much more public and focal part of college sports than it's ever been, and taking in many more dollars than it ever has. And it seems to me all that would naturally open doors. Yes, if players understand the consequences are bad enough to make it not worth it, they'll be less inclined to do it. But if more and more dollars get thrown at them to somehow compromise games, more of them will probably do it anyway.

Numerous probably wasn’t the right word but it’s happened four or five times since 1980 if you count basketball. Also, I haven’t seen any charges of trying to fix a game in this story. This is mostly betting underage and then tampering with records to avoid the authorities.

I don’t think the main issue is going to be throwing games, it’s going to be betting either when you’re underage or betting on sports you shouldn’t.

Mean Green 93-98 · August 12, 2023

1 hour ago, meanrob said:

Numerous probably wasn’t the right word but it’s happened four or five times since 1980 if you count basketball. Also, I haven’t seen any charges of trying to fix a game in this story. This is mostly betting underage and then tampering with records to avoid the authorities.

I don’t think the main issue is going to be throwing games, it’s going to be betting either when you’re underage or betting on sports you shouldn’t.

I mean, they bet against their own school. It might be difficult to prove in a court of law that they played some downs at less than full effort; but I would think they had a conflict of interests, to say the least.

Anyway, I didn't really think my initial comment was that controversial. The smaller the buffer between "legal" and "illegal," the easier it is to cross the line. Not to mention the increasing number of enticements to cross.

meanrob · August 12, 2023

Just now, Mean Green 93-98 said:

I mean, they bet against their own school. It might be difficult to prove in a court of law that they played some downs at less than full effort; but I would think they had a conflict of interests, to say the least.

Anyway, I didn't really think my initial comment was that controversial. The smaller the buffer between "legal" and "illegal," the easier it is to cross the line. Not to mention the increasing number of enticements to cross.

Only one is alleged to bet against his school .

Im not saying your post was controversial I was just curious to what you meant by consequences. I agree with everything you said except I’m not seeing a big wave of throwing games happening.