Should we be surprised to learn about Iowa and Iowa State athletes allegedly placing sports bets, much to the chagrin of NCAA rules so outdated that they were probably written on stone tablets?

Radio commercials promoting gambling are as prevalent today as COVID was a few years back. Wagering lines are everywhere, including some daily newspapers. Betting is as near to us as a couple of pushed buttons on your cell phone. And we expect our student-athletes to stay above it all?

That’s a fantasy world.

Just because students everywhere gamble doesn’t soften the news that Iowa and Iowa State released Monday about a sports gambling investigation involving approximately 41 student-athletes. That defense won’t hold up, I guarantee you, but here’s the point:

More: Iowa, Iowa State sports gambling investigation: How serious is the situation?

Brian Ohorilko, the administrator of the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission, told The Des Moines Register that there’s no suspicion that those student-athletes did anything nefarious to impact the outcomes of games.

Thank goodness. I’d hate to think one of our athletes altered a game for the sake of someone winning a bet. We’ve heard nothing comparing this to point-shaving, like the Boston College scandal in the late 1970s. We’ve heard no comparisons to when Arizona State players shaped the outcome of a men’s basketball game against Oregon State in 1994.

Our student-athletes allegedly bet illegally on games. Some maybe hadn’t yet reached the Iowa legal gambling age of 21. We think that’s the situation, unless the Iowa Department of Criminal Investigation tells us otherwise.

Shocked that something like this has crept into our collegiate athletics? Then crawl out from under that rock.

As Democratic state senator Tony Bisignano of Des Moines’ south side told me this week:

“You shouldn’t be surprised about this. People of all ages bet. What’s changed?”

Sports betting has been legal for people of age in Iowa since 2019

That’s what’s changed, and with that came rules, regulations, checks, balances, bells and whistles that go off when something potentially nefarious is suspected.

“People still bet, but now there’s better ways to keep a watch on it,” Bisignano said. “And in the case of Iowa and Iowa State (athletes) – the system looks like it worked.”

We think it worked. We have no reason to believe it didn’t work. That’s the sun peeking out of the clouds.

More: What to know on the NCAA rules on sports betting, potential punishments and much more

“You can have a guy who’s 21 years old, sitting with a sportsbook open on the phone, and his buddies are putting bets in,” Bisignano said. “That’s not surprising to me. Before legalized betting, there were bookies in dorms and frat houses.

“At least that’s not the case now.”

While the NCAA covers its eyes on NIL shenanigans, it’s busting a legal-aged student-athlete for gambling on an NFL game?

The NCAA hung a six-game suspension last fall on a Virginia Tech senior football player who won $41 for betting on a few NBA games. A college football player bets on a professional basketball game and is penalized by sitting out half of his senior season?

OMG.

The NCAA’s archaic rules prohibit student-athletes from most types of sports wagering. It’s time NCAA leaders come out of their cave. It’s time to update that silly rule. What’s legal in society should include student-athletes —as long as they’re of legal betting age and not wagering on their sport or maybe even college sports.

“The NCAA definitely needs to look at their rule regarding gambling,” State Senate Majority Leader Jack Whitver, a former Iowa State football player, told me Wednesday. “Strict rules must be in place for athletes wagering on games involving their team, and those rules need to have severe penalties to protect the integrity of the game.”

More: Could Iowa, ISU student athletes face criminal charges in gambling investigation?

If a wrestler wants to place a futures bet on the Chiefs or 49ers winning the next Super Bowl, what’s wrong with that? If a football player wants to bet on the Suns winning the NBA championship, have at it. What’s the big deal?

Meanwhile, NCAA athletes are allowed to jump from school to school in search of the biggest Name, Image and Likeness payoff.

If an Iowa or Iowa State student-athlete of legal betting age gets anything more than a light reprimand (or maybe a one-game suspension), the NCAA’s hypocrisy would be in full bloom.

Let’s bust the kid that made 41 bucks, yet let kids transfer to the highest bidder. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Not.

If the NCAA really want to clean up this seedy side of athletics, then make public disclosure mandatory

The NCAA should require football coaches to publicly disclose who’s available and who’s not for upcoming games.

With cell phone betting apps available everywhere, how many bettors check out pregame warmups to see who’s likely playing and who’s likely out before making bets? How many hard-core legal bettors have fact-finders within the locker room? (Probably more than we’d like to believe.)

Again, the NCAA has its head in the sand. It’s 2023. Sports betting is legal in 33 states. The time has come for college coaches to disclose official availability lists at least 48 hours before games. Specific types of injuries needn’t be required. But who’s in and who’s out – that should be standard operating procedure.

“My sense is that there’s going to be a human cry for that to happen,” then-Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby said in 2019.

Legal sports wagering is big in Iowa. A whopping $3.9 billion has been bet in Iowa since Gov. Kim Reynolds signed the legal sports gambling bill 2019. Times are changing everywhere, not just in Iowa.

“Like so many things going on with the NCAA − the NIL and transfer portal − this should be addressed by the NCAA,” Whitver said.

So far, the NCAA remains deaf to our changing society.

Iowa State columnist Randy Peterson is in his 51st year writing sports for the Des Moines Register. Reach him at [email protected], and on Twitter @RandyPete