Greg Schain Greg likes likes the Yankees
and Billy Joel. E-mail him at [email protected].
I am about to write the words that strike fear into the heart of
all NCAA suits. These words make them cringe, and run and hide as
if they were being hunted by the IRS.
What are these dreaded words?
According to Las Vegas bookies, “UCLA is a 3.5 point
favorite over Oregon State this Saturday.”
That’s right. At 3.5 points, half the money is coming in
on UCLA, and the other half is going in on Oregon State. Millions
of dollars are going to each side, with a nice payoff coming to
half of the gamblers and all of the bookies.
The NCAA despises gambling, claiming that it is immoral. They
hate it so much that they rarely talk about it publicly. It is as
taboo as nose picking and nipple rings.
This is no new revelation. The NCAA has always hated gambling.
But the system has fallen into place nicely throughout the last
century: they hate it, and everyone else ignores them and does it
anyway. It has worked out so far.
But now the NCAA is upping their fight against gambling. They
have been lobbying Congress to pass a bill outlawing all gambling
on college sports in the U.S.
And, led by Sen. John McCain, it looks like the bill is going to
pass soon and become the law of the land.
I look at this with partial amazement and partial disgust. To
save time, I’ll call it “dismazement.”
My dismazement stems from the fact that the NCAA is trying to
play the moral police with this bill. Who are they to tell me what
I can or can’t do with my own personal money?
And how could they have the nerve to stop a practice that has
been an American tradition since George Washington crossed the
Delaware River? (Records show that Harvard was a four point
underdog to the Redcoats in the first game of the 1776 season.)
The truth is that gambling is as ingrained into the American
culture as Razor Scooters and Michael Jackson. You can try to make
them go away, but you are going to fail in the end.
Passing a law against college gambling would have no affect on
what goes on in the real world. According to the American Gambling
Association, over 90 percent of gambling now takes place in
offshore Internet casinos, which are not subject to U.S.
jurisdiction and, therefore, will carry on with their business
undeterred.
Most of the other 10 percent of gambling happens through bookies
outside of Vegas, who are already illegal and therefore probably
won’t cease to continue being illegal. So all this bill will
do is cause people who are betting legally in Vegas to start
betting illegally.
Since I came out of the womb, I have always been dismayed at why
the NCAA would act against gambling in the first place. I guess the
suits hate it because of occasional point-shaving scandals, like
Arizona State purposely throwing basketball games in the early
1990s.
Maybe that’s why the NCAA’s Web site says gambling
“threatens the integrity of college sports.”
But they shouldn’t hate it, because gambling has given the
NCAA something more coveted than pride, tradition, and integrity:
lots and lots and lots of money. The NCAA is out to make a buck
just like every other person and organization in our great country.
They could deny it all they want, but the fact is that the death of
college gambling means the death of the NCAA.
According to the NCAA, $2.5 billion is bet on the men’s
NCAA basketball tournament alone. Take away those wagers, and few
people would have a reason to care about college basketball. If few
people care, ticket and merchandise sales plummet. And that $6
billion contract that CBS signed to air the tournament will
certainly not be renewed.
Why would the NCAA want that to happen? After all, gambling is
to college basketball what Rudy was to the first Survivor: he
carried it and helped it thrive.
The NCAA and Congress should just leave everyone alone and let
people have fun with college games by putting some money on who
they think will cover the spread.
And don’t be dismazed if UCLA covers the 3.5 points this
weekend.