Last week, the NCAA released findings of a new study that revealed 36% of Division I men's basketball student-athletes reported experiencing social media abuse related to sports betting within the last year, while 29% reported having interacted with a student on campus who had placed a bet on their team. Among football student-athletes in the Football Bowl Subdivision, 16% reported receiving negative or threatening messages, while 26% reported interacting with a student who had bet on their team.
Overall, 7% of Division I men's sports athletes reported receiving negative or threatening messages from fans who bet on their game, and 9% had experienced a student telling them that they won or lost a bet they placed on them. Rates were much lower among women's sports athletes (1% for both items). As the study's sports-betting questions asked about interactions within the past year, the results were restricted to sophomores and above.
"That happens all the time. I got one from a previous game before. They do it all the time," former Butler men's basketball student-athlete Pierre Brooks II said after an EPIC Global Solutions session last fall. "Like, if people don't meet their over or under, they always DM me. It's actually pretty common."
The NCAA launched a campaign in 2023 urging state regulators and gambling companies to remove prop bets on college sports from their offerings.
"States and gaming operators that continue to offer these bets are putting student-athletes and competition integrity at risk," NCAA President Charlie Baker said. "The NCAA runs the largest integrity monitoring program in the country, and we educate hundreds of thousands of student-athletes about the damages of sports betting, but regulators, lawmakers and gaming operators can and should do more."
The NCAA's Student-Athlete Needs, Aspiration and Perspectives study, known as the SNAP study, is a new survey tool for Division I. Distributed via mobile app, the three-minute survey of Division I student-athletes was administered Sept. 30-Oct. 5. The survey asked 19 questions about current Division I topics, including performance technology, Student-Athlete Advisory Committee resources, fan behavior related to sports betting, and mental well-being. Survey participation was voluntary and confidential. Nearly 6,800 students from 153 Division I schools took the survey. Full results can be found here.
In addition to the SNAP study, NCAA research repeated items on social media abuse in the 2025 GOALS Study, and results from that study will be available in January.
The NCAA enforcement staff has opened investigations into potential sports betting violations by approximately 30 current or former men's basketball student-athletes. Some of those cases already have been resolved, and 12 student-athletes were permanently banned from NCAA competition.
The NCAA is the only major sports league in the U.S. to prohibit commercial partnerships and advertisements with sportsbooks.
The Association has successfully petitioned four states to eliminate prop bets on college athletes. Click here for more information on the NCAA's response to sports betting.
