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Yet another National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) conference is partnering with US Integrity (USI) to help mitigate sports betting among student-athletes.
This time, the Big Ten Conference is enhancing its monitoring efforts to help prevent student-athletes, coaches and staff from engaging in prohibited sports wagering. In addition, the conference announced it will debut a gameday student-athlete availability report for all football competitions during the 2023 season.
Monitoring illegal sports bets by student-athletes
The Big Ten joins the Big 12 Conference in instituting monitoring software and tools to prevent illegal sports bets. Earlier this year, 15 student-athletes and two student managers associated with Iowa college athletics were charged in connection to an investigation into unlawful sports betting.
Amongst the group was Iowa State starting quarterback Hunter Dekkers. According to an article by KCCI, Dekkers is accused of placing approximately 366 wagers, including 297 of which were placed before he turned 21. The Iowa State athlete also placed 26 bets on Iowa State sporting events.
In a Big Ten press release, Commissioner Tony Petitti said:
“The well-being of our students, coaches, and staff, as well as the integrity of our competitions are of paramount importance. Enhanced transparency through availability reporting and partnering with US Integrity strengthens our efforts to protect those who participate in our games as well as the integrity of the games themselves. I’m grateful for the collaboration of our schools, coaches, and administrators.”
USI analyzes dozens of data sets to identify irregular contest-level, officiating and wagering patterns.
About the Big Ten availability report
The Big Ten availability report will function similarly to the National Football League report. Before scheduled kickoff times, Big Ten schools will tell the league which players will/will not be participating in that day’s game.
Per the press release: Big Ten institutions are responsible for submitting gameday availability reports prior to every contest this season. Information will be submitted by schools no later than two hours before scheduled kickoff times to the conference office and distributed on BigTen.org/FBReports and @B1GFootball on X (Twitter).
Breach of the gameday reporting policy will be subject to disciplinary action under the Big Ten Sportsmanship Policy.
