Notre Dame Men's Swimming Banged For Gambling
The Notre Dame men's swim team received a 1-year suspension for violating NCAA betting rules
I always find it funny when the first sentence of an article is exactly the same as the title of said article (examples 1 and 2). So I’m going to avoid typing the subject for the third time and make a My Cousin Vinny reference instead:
Now that we’ve got that out of the way… I want to comment on yesterday’s news regarding the Notre Dame Men’s Swimming Team.
First of all, they broke the rules. NCAA is pretty clear about gambling in any fashion, and the general gist of their messaging is “DON’T DO IT”. Every college athlete is aware they’re not supposed to bet, so there’s no wiggle room here to claim this team is totally innocent.
Howeva (another niche My Cousin Vinny reference), I think it’s important to discuss certain elements of this situation, because a lot of people on the internet read headlines, declare a full blown scandal, and call for an outright ban of sports betting.
Let’s get down to it…
Integrity Concerns
The first and most important thing that needs to be addressed is the integrity of the Notre Dame men’s swim meets. If these athletes were betting against themselves and swimming slower in order to win money for themselves and others… then we’ve got a huge problem. But that doesn’t appear to be the case:
“Athletes were not found to have bet on opposing teams or on any other Notre Dame athletic events, the person said.” - AP Article
It also wouldn’t make sense for an “internal sportsbook” to cultivate an environment of match fixing, as someone would need to take the opposite side of the bet. If Joe Swimmingpool wants to bet against his own performance, no sane person is going to take the other side of that wager. That would be like me coming to you and saying “hey, reader, I’ll bet you $500 I won’t publish another article before next Thursday”. It just doesn’t make any sense.
Given the results of the investigation and the logical argument, I think it’s safe to assume these swimmers were only betting on themselves to perform well, or on races they had no influence over.
Defining “Internal Sportsbook”
The most common description of the situation is that ND Men’s Swimming was operating an “internal sportsbook” on which “athletes could wager on the times posted by themselves or teammates at meets”.
The first thing that comes to mind, which hasn’t been discussed in any article I’ve read, is whether or not there was a vig. Were athletes setting over/under lines for times and then matching equal sized wagers? or was there a central body making all the lines, taking all the bets, and keeping a portion for itself?
I think answering these questions makes it clearer whether these boys were involved in anything more nefarious than some simple, low-stakes, head-to-head bets.
To be clear, I am not speculating as to the legality of this situation. I am not a lawyer and am merely commenting on what has been reported.
This happens EVERYWHERE
Athletes are constantly told to “bet on yourself”. It’s not a phrase that literally means “wager money on yourself to perform well”, but it is a common message athletes and young people hear to inspire them to take risks and trust in their abilities and preparation.
Another thing about athletes… they’re competitors who constantly search for tiny ways to motivate themselves to be better. They need to win, hate to lose, and want to prove their talent to others.
Some of the greatest athletes of all time — Michael Jordan, Tom Brady, and Serena Williams, to name a few — find motivation in the tiniest of things, down to a way a competitor looks at them. Michael Jordan (and others) have also been known to place enormous wagers on themselves in casual games of golf. It is another way to say “I’m serious about this, and I’m confident in myself”.
So yes, college athletes do this all the time.
Bet you $5 I get a hit next time up. $10 says I beat my PR right here. Whoever makes more shots buys dinner.
It’s a way to motivate themselves, and the elaborateness of the “sportsbook” makes it more fun. Hell, my friends and I kept an elaborate spreadsheet to track results of our Hearts and Spades games (for money, of course). Average score, average profit/loss per game, likelihood of getting the queen of spades, etc. It just made it more fun.
Don’t blame the industry
Whenever something like this happens the immediate reaction is that it’s the fault of the sports betting industry. Every comment will say something to the effect of “Sponsored by DraftKings” or “this is what happens when you get in bed with gambling companies” but in reality those sentiments are unfounded.
It’s easy to assign blame to the proliferation of sports betting but in reality this type of thing has happened forever (see section above). The NCAA and individual universities are certainly taking sports betting more seriously and it feels like more college betting punishments have been doled out in recent years, but I don’t believe there are any numbers to prove it’s more than confirmation bias.
Remember when Trump was (incorrectly) like “we have more COVID because we’re doing more tests”? This is the same thing.
Just because the NCAA is uncovering more betting violations doesn’t mean they’re happening at a higher rate than before. However, if I see real data refuting that statement I’ll change my mind.
Overall
Notre Dame Men’s Swimming got caught doing something against NCAA rules, and they absolutely deserve to get punished for it. However, given what we know about the situation and using some logic, I think we can agree this wasn’t a match-fixing scandal and poses no threat to the integrity of collegiate sports.
I think a 1-year team-level ban is harsh, considering only a portion of the athletes were found guilty of involvement. The non-participants shouldn’t be punished for their teammates transgressions, especially given the lack of magnitude of said transgressions.
This happens. It will continue to happen. The moral of the story is… be smarter, fellas.
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Thanks everyone and have a great weekend!