https://amp.usatoday.com/amp/743201002
NCAA will not seek a cut from sports betting, association executive says
STEVE BERKOWITZ | USA TODAY | 2 hours ago
The NCAA’s leadership will not pursue so-called integrity fees for the association even though it recognizes that the anticipated spread of legalized sports betting will require it to spend money to monitor betting patterns for indicators of potential irregularities in college games, a top-ranking executive of the organization said Thursday.
Speaking to a group of college athletic business administrators at the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics’ annual convention, NCAA senior vice president and chief financial officer Kathleen McNeely said that if sports gambling continues to operate under regulation on a state-by-state basis, it will be up to individual schools to decide whether they want to pursue this type of money. (The NCAA and the NFL are advocating for federal regulation of sports betting.)
Officials from West Virginia and Marshall reportedly have working toward obtaining integrity fee money to offset anticipated compliance and monitoring costs if the state implements sports betting.
However, McNeely said the NCAA national office “will not be going after any gambling revenue. We know it will cost money to monitor, but (association president) Mark Emmert has been pretty firm in saying he doesn’t think it’s appropriate for the NCAA to try to access that revenue. Schools will need to look at their own values and decide” what to do.
The NCAA remains opposed to sports betting, McNeely said, and Emmert has made clear that “it feels a little disingenuous (for the association) to think about taking revenue” from that activity.
For its championship events, the NCAA does not accept advertising from any company that is involved in game activities, including state lotteries. NCAA rules also forbid sports betting by athletes and athletics department employees.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver and several Major League Baseball officials have said their leagues should get integrity fee money, and Silver has further pressed the NBA's case by raising royalty and intellectual property arguments.
The NCAA has established a gambling working group that will spend time this summer and fall working toward making a recommendation on how the NCAA should proceed, McNeely said during an interview with USA TODAY Sports after the presentation. Among the issues to be decided is whether the association should work with an outside firm that can provide the necessary analytics data and expertise to help the NCAA monitor betting activity, or whether the association should build its own system.
In discussing the NCAA’s broader financial picture, McNeely said it is on track to again have just more than $1 billion in revenue during fiscal year that ends Aug. 31.
Looking ahead, though, in addition to potential new expenses related to sports betting, McNeely said the NCAA is making a one-time set-aside of $10 million in its 2018-19 budget for implementation of recommendations from the Commission on College Basketball that was chaired by former secretary of state Condoleezza Rice and then $2.5 million a year going forward.
However, the costs to the NCAA could be greater. On Monday, proposals about how to make the NCAA rules changes needed to implement Rice Commission recommendations are scheduled to be circulated to conferences and other constituent groups. Among the issues to be decided are how much money the NCAA may need to put toward the recommendation that “that the NCAA immediately establish a substantial fund and commit to paying for the degree completion of student-athletes with athletic scholarships who leave member institutions after progress of at least two years towards a degree.”
Schools in the Power Five conferences and some other schools already are making commitments to athletes that they will pay for the athletes to complete their undergraduate degrees. But the Rice Commission recommendation leaves an array of questions: Will the degree-completion program apply to all sports? Will the NCAA attempt to underwrite all of this, including Power Five schools that have large revenues and already have made these commitments? Will athletes be able to have the completion of their degrees covered at any school, or only at the school they left?
The answers could put the NCAA on the line for tens of millions in additional costs.
The association also will have to decide on how to regulate, or potentially, oversee camps and/or other youth basketball events that will allow prospects to be seen by coaches, but also will provide a more controlled environment than the one that exists now.
On top of all of this, given the NCAA’s ongoing, and potentially future, legal entanglements, McNeely said the association’s long-term financial plan now includes budgeting for outside legal fees to increase by 10 percent a year. According to the association’s newly released tax records, that cost was just over $36 million for a fiscal year that ended Aug. 31, 2017.
NCAA will not seek a cut from sports betting, association executive says
STEVE BERKOWITZ | USA TODAY | 2 hours ago
The NCAA’s leadership will not pursue so-called integrity fees for the association even though it recognizes that the anticipated spread of legalized sports betting will require it to spend money to monitor betting patterns for indicators of potential irregularities in college games, a top-ranking executive of the organization said Thursday.
Speaking to a group of college athletic business administrators at the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics’ annual convention, NCAA senior vice president and chief financial officer Kathleen McNeely said that if sports gambling continues to operate under regulation on a state-by-state basis, it will be up to individual schools to decide whether they want to pursue this type of money. (The NCAA and the NFL are advocating for federal regulation of sports betting.)
Officials from West Virginia and Marshall reportedly have working toward obtaining integrity fee money to offset anticipated compliance and monitoring costs if the state implements sports betting.
However, McNeely said the NCAA national office “will not be going after any gambling revenue. We know it will cost money to monitor, but (association president) Mark Emmert has been pretty firm in saying he doesn’t think it’s appropriate for the NCAA to try to access that revenue. Schools will need to look at their own values and decide” what to do.
The NCAA remains opposed to sports betting, McNeely said, and Emmert has made clear that “it feels a little disingenuous (for the association) to think about taking revenue” from that activity.
For its championship events, the NCAA does not accept advertising from any company that is involved in game activities, including state lotteries. NCAA rules also forbid sports betting by athletes and athletics department employees.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver and several Major League Baseball officials have said their leagues should get integrity fee money, and Silver has further pressed the NBA's case by raising royalty and intellectual property arguments.
The NCAA has established a gambling working group that will spend time this summer and fall working toward making a recommendation on how the NCAA should proceed, McNeely said during an interview with USA TODAY Sports after the presentation. Among the issues to be decided is whether the association should work with an outside firm that can provide the necessary analytics data and expertise to help the NCAA monitor betting activity, or whether the association should build its own system.
In discussing the NCAA’s broader financial picture, McNeely said it is on track to again have just more than $1 billion in revenue during fiscal year that ends Aug. 31.
Looking ahead, though, in addition to potential new expenses related to sports betting, McNeely said the NCAA is making a one-time set-aside of $10 million in its 2018-19 budget for implementation of recommendations from the Commission on College Basketball that was chaired by former secretary of state Condoleezza Rice and then $2.5 million a year going forward.
However, the costs to the NCAA could be greater. On Monday, proposals about how to make the NCAA rules changes needed to implement Rice Commission recommendations are scheduled to be circulated to conferences and other constituent groups. Among the issues to be decided are how much money the NCAA may need to put toward the recommendation that “that the NCAA immediately establish a substantial fund and commit to paying for the degree completion of student-athletes with athletic scholarships who leave member institutions after progress of at least two years towards a degree.”
Schools in the Power Five conferences and some other schools already are making commitments to athletes that they will pay for the athletes to complete their undergraduate degrees. But the Rice Commission recommendation leaves an array of questions: Will the degree-completion program apply to all sports? Will the NCAA attempt to underwrite all of this, including Power Five schools that have large revenues and already have made these commitments? Will athletes be able to have the completion of their degrees covered at any school, or only at the school they left?
The answers could put the NCAA on the line for tens of millions in additional costs.
The association also will have to decide on how to regulate, or potentially, oversee camps and/or other youth basketball events that will allow prospects to be seen by coaches, but also will provide a more controlled environment than the one that exists now.
On top of all of this, given the NCAA’s ongoing, and potentially future, legal entanglements, McNeely said the association’s long-term financial plan now includes budgeting for outside legal fees to increase by 10 percent a year. According to the association’s newly released tax records, that cost was just over $36 million for a fiscal year that ended Aug. 31, 2017.
