College ADs around Virginia acknowledge changes in betting laws will be lively subject on campuses

“I think we’re at a very interesting time with college sports and sports betting sort of converging,” VCU athletic director Ed McLaughlin said last week, ahead of the Supreme Court ruling that declared each state can decide on its own if sports betting will be legal or banned. “How does college athletics adapt to the new world of sports betting?”

McLaughlin spent this week in Naples, Florida, this week for the Atlantic 10’s annual spring meetings. Around the country, other leagues are gathering this month and — for most — the possibility of legalized sports gambling where their member institutions are located will be a major topic.

Will it prompt the NCAA member institutions to relax their restrictions on athletes, coaches and administrators betting on games? Would that be limited to professional events or sports the specific individual does not play or coach?

Or will the rules remain as rigid as ever despite the move toward legalization?

“We’ve talked about it as athletic directors and knew this was on the radar,” University of Virginia athletic director Carla Williams said. “I think it’s too early to make any definitive comments about it, but it’s definitely something I know we’ll talk about. The concerns that typically come along with gambling — we know what those are.”

With estimated billions of dollars being wagered illegally, Old Dominion University athletic director Wood Selig said he understands states moving to legalize sports gambling, and said that leaves the burden on those in college sports to make sure it doesn’t have a negative impact on their industry.

“There’s obviously a huge underground sports wagering business that’s going on,” Selig said. “If this can help generate revenue for states and be regulated and controlled, if you look at Las Vegas, they’ve found a way to do it. This is going to force all of us to figure out, ‘How do we live in this new world of potential legal gambling?’”

Through a spokesman, Virginia Tech athletic director Whit Babcock declined an interview request, deferring comment to ACC Commissioner John Swofford.

“[The] ruling by the Supreme Court was clear in redefining how individual states can implement sports gambling,” Swofford said in a statement. “The ACC footprint includes 10 states, and we will wait to see what plays out within each. We will discuss with our membership and determine how we proceed.”

On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992, ruling 6-3 that it violated the 10th Amendment to the Constitution. That law had limited the scope of sports gambling in the country.

Connecticut, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Mississippi and West Virginia all have passed laws that could legalize sports gambling . More than a dozen other states currently are considering bills that would do the same thing, though Virginia is not — at present — among them.

Virginia law currently considers gambling illegal, part of a code section titled “Crimes Involving Morals and Decency.” The General Assembly would have to change that law to pave the way for sports betting in the commonwealth.

Of course, there’s such a wide range of gambling options — from daily fantasy sports websites like DraftKings and FanDuel to the possibility of casino-style event betting — that McLaughlin and his fellow athletic directors know the issue isn’t as cut and dry as it once was.

“At the heart of it is, we want to protect the integrity of the game and we also want to protect the best interest of the student-athlete,” McLaughlin said. “We have to adapt to it, I think, a little more readily than some folks would like to.”

That, James Madison athletic director Jeff Bourne said, will be another part of the equation as colleges address whether to ease restrictions on sports gambling. Taking a modern and realistic view of sports betting in the current age could be hard for a college athletics world that has long viewed gambling as perhaps the ultimate taboo, scarred by point-shaving scandals throughout its past.

“It would force us into a situation where we would need to look at our policies and how we handle it,” Bourne said. “Your personal view may differ from what the climate’s doing. But I think it could be very, very difficult to monitor and police if it were to change and we did not then adapt and make some changes of our own.”

Bourne said he’s against Virginia legalizing sports gambling because of the potential issues that it could cause for college athletics.

“I think maybe on the surface it sounds fine,” Bourne said. “But when you dig down into the details and the ultimate results of what something like that can create within a sports arena like ours, I think it becomes very challenging. I personally would not support it.”

Selig believes the NCAA’s ban on gambling for its athletes, coaches and administrators needs to stay in place, even if individual states legalize sports betting.

“I don’t see any value or benefit of anyone betting as an athlete on their sport or others sports,” Selig said. “There’s too much inherent risk of conflict of interest.”

Selig noted that things like prop bets on a college football game — will the first play be a run or pass? — could create situations where athletes could be pressured to sway outcomes. A quarterback, for example, could audible to pass on the first play of the game if he knew a bettor had laid a large amount of money on that outcome.

Selig said he took part in a conference call of Conference USA athletic directors Tuesday to discuss the topic and expects it to be a major discussion point at next week’s league’s meetings in Destin, Florida.

“It’s no longer in the background, that’s for sure,” Selig said.