Florida Gators head coach Billy Napier weighed in on gambling in college athletics during the SEC’s spring meetings. There, he described it as a double-edged sword.
This comes as the college baseball world was rocked by a gambling scandal surrounding the now-former Alabama baseball coach, Brad Bohannon. Bohannon was fired after allegedly being connected to betting activity.
“I think that we’ve got good checks and balances in place, not only from the league but also within our institution,” Billy Napier said. “You know, it’s made the game more popular. So, I think there’s pros and cons here, right?”
The reality for administrators is that it’s difficult to prevent online gambling. Laws are rapidly changing and vary by state. Keeping up can be difficult and it’s an issue that’s becoming more prevalent at all levels of sports. The Calvin Ridley suspension by the NFL is just one high-profile example.
“The big thing is you have to have great checks and balances in place, you’ve got to educate your players, and try to prevent some of these things from happening.”
As of now, mobile sports betting is illegal in the state of Florida. It was briefly allowed in 2021 before it was challenged and a federal judge ruled that it would be a violation of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act. However, not all of Napier’s players are from Florida or spend their time exclusively in the Sunshine State.
Billy Napier on NIL and the transfer portal in recruiting
In recent years, there have been several major changes to college football. The first is players being able to make money from their NIL. The other is the ability to transfer one time without penalty as an undergraduate.
However, Billy Napier doesn’t seem to think these have as big of an impact as some might think in recruiting.
“I don’t think it’s much different, I think we just added a few variables, right?” Napier said. “NIL being the main one. They’re still evaluating your program, you’re still putting your program together the same ways, you just added a variable on the recruitment side.”
As Billy Napier explained, the calendar is the biggest difference he’s seeing.
“I think the portal has created two cycles of work from the evaluation and recruitment side,” Napier said. “Those are the two main workloads that have been added to our shelf.”