Purdue Boilermakers Betting: Students, Staff, And Faculty Prohibited

Purdue sports betting ban

Shortly after Indiana legalized sports wagering, the Purdue University Board of Trustees voted to implement a policy prohibiting non-athlete students, staff and faculty from betting on events involving Purdue sports teams, athletes or coaches.

A Purdue University press release explained the policy was implemented at the urging of certain faculty members and the Department of Intercollegiate Athletics.

The policy applies not only to wagers placed at Indiana sportsbooks but to wagers placed “worldwide and online.”

The press release further explains faculty and staff who violate the policy will face discipline “up to and including termination.” Disciplinary measures for students who violate the policy were developed by the vice provost for faculty affairs and vice president for human resources alongside the Executive Policy Review Group.

Student athletes were already prohibited from wagering on their own sports under NCAA rules and Indiana sports betting laws, but the rule change expanded the restriction to non-athlete students. Under IC § 4-38-9-3, athletes and other personnel involved in sports may not place wagers on their games:

(5) With respect to a sporting event sponsored, organized, or conducted by a particular sports governing body, any of the following [are restricted from betting]:

  1. An employee of the sports governing body
  2. A game official employed by or under contract with the sports governing body
  3. A coach, manager, or other personnel employed by or under contract with a member club of the sports governing body
  4. An athlete who is:
    1. under contract with a member club of the sports governing body in the case of a team sport; or
    2. eligible to participate in events conducted by the sports governing body in the case of an individual sport
  5. An employee of a union representing athletes or game officials
  6. A relative living in the same household of an individual described in clauses (A) through (E)

Purdue University President Mitch Daniels issued a short statement explaining the motivation behind the proposal:

“Our goal and that of our Department of Intercollegiate Athletics is to operate with the greatest of integrity and sportsmanship. In that spirit and out of respect for our student-athletes and coaches, we believe this is the right action to take to reduce the potential for any student-athlete to feel compromised, for any implication of profiteering or inside information, or other problems.”

Sports Betting Rule Addresses Indiana Colleges’ Concerns

Local colleges expressed concern after Governor Holcomb signed the sports betting bill into law in 2019. Officials from three Indiana universities noted at the time that they would be watching the development closely and taking steps to protect the integrity of their sports programs.

Here’s what Indiana University athletic director Fred Glass said after the state legalized sports wagering:

“We really found the measures we take are really robust. But we will continue to monitor that and be very aggressive about that, with the NCAA, the conference and at the institution level to try to make sure that we’ll continue to protect the integrity of our programs.”

And here’s Purdue Athletic Director Mike Bobinksi in discussing wagers such as player props and in-game betting:

“When you get into the potential for more exotic and sort of one-off type of wagering, I think you open yourself to lots more risk of manipulation and influence. That’s something that we were very concerned about and wanted to do our best to try and sort of maintain a normalized established structure.”

Butler University spokesman John Dedman told The Goshen News his school will continue to educate student athletes on the risks associated with sports betting in Indiana.

Although the concerns of university officials are valid, the legalization of sports betting may end up making their job a little easier by bringing the activity out of the black market and into the light of regulation.

After all, the University of Toledo sports betting scandal in neighboring Ohio occurred well before sports betting was legal anywhere outside of Nevada. In a regulated environment, suspicious wagers and betting patterns are much more likely to be detected and reported to authorities.

Some Purdue Students Not Happy About the Prohibition

Not surprisingly, some Purdue students are not happy about being prohibited from betting on their own college’s sporting success.

WLFI News 18 spoke with some Purdue students this week to get their thoughts on the new rule.

“It just doesn’t make sense to me. Faculty I get, but not really the students,” said one student.

Others echoed his sentiments.

“I don’t know why we wouldn’t be allowed to. Doesn’t really make sense to me,” said student Hagen McHenry. McHenry also raised an interesting point when he said, “I’m a citizen of Indiana. I don’t know why I wouldn’t have that right.”

Sports Illustrated published a thorough writeup discussing the Purdue prohibition proposal and some of the issues it faces. In addition to detailing the many ways in which it is difficult to enforce such a ban, the article discusses the potential for legal challenges.

According to Sports Illustrated, one potential avenue for challenging the policy would be on First Amendment grounds. If a Purdue student who is 21 and would otherwise be able to wager on sports legally takes the policy to court, that person could argue betting on the Boilermakers is a protected expression of free speech.

Faculty Prohibition Seems Sensible

While the merits of prohibiting Purdue students from betting on Purdue games are arguable, the prohibition of staff from doing the same seems sensible from the start. University staff and professors occupy a position of authority over students in a way students do not have over one another.

As Marc Edelman of Forbes noted, there are three obvious ways in which university professors could theoretically abuse their positions of authority over student athletes as it relates to sports betting:

  • Ask a student athlete to lose a game (or maybe just shave a few points off the total) as a part of a quid pro quo agreement
  • Seek inside information from a student regarding an upcoming game
  • Harass a student athlete for losing a game upon which the professor had a wager

One can imagine the many subtle ways in which these types of scenarios could unfold. Additionally, even seemingly innocuous comments from a careless professor could potentially put pressure on student athletes or otherwise sour the relationship to the detriment of athletes’ educations.

There will never be a perfect solution to these issues, of course. Professors could (almost) as easily place wagers at offshore sportsbooks with even less scrutiny. Still, removing one easily-available source of temptation and eliminating even the appearance of impropriety is a good move.

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