ESPN reports that more than one percent of athletes admitted to accepting payment to play poorly in a game.
On the surface one percent doesn't seem like that big of a deal, but I guess the an important question is who comprises this 'one percent.' Is it the starting quarterback or the second string punter? While this has an impact on the outcome, it certainly does nothing for the integrity associated with being a 'student-athlete' (of course the whole student-athlete thing has been a joke with the likes of Lawrence Phillips and Maurice Clarett).
Maybe the most interesting part of the story was the following:
The study also found that almost 35 percent of male student-athletes admitted to having engaged in some type of sports wagering behavior in the past year, compared to only 10 percent of female student-athletes. Division-III student-athletes are the most likely to engage in gambling or sports wagering, while Division I student-athletes are the least likely, according to the release.The fact that men gamble more often than women isn't interesting at all. But what is eye-catching is the fact that D-3 athletes are a lot more likely to get involved in gambling that D-1 athletes. If I had to guess before reading this story, I would put my money on D-1 athletes being much more involved in gambling. But after some thought, I guess it makes sense when you're talking about 'gambling activities' -- which basically includes everything. I doubt seriously that D-3 athletes have any opportunities to fix games, if for no other reason than how many point spreads do you see for the Amherst / Williams basketball grudge match?
So while D-1 athletes probably account for most of the game-fixing, D-3 athletes are much more likely to be involved in all other forms of sports gambling. Curiously, the media doesn't talk a lot about the pervasiveness of gambling on college campuses. I've been out of college for almost ten years, and it was a really big problem then as well. The real question is what will Myles Brand do to alleviate sports gambling on college campuses. Whatever happens, this problem certainly won't go away easily.
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