© Vasha Hunt, Associated Press

Alabama coach Brad Bohannon was fired after ‘suspicious activity’ related to gambling.

Alabama athletic director Greg Byrne is treating the rise, acceptance and warp-speed leap in sophistication of sports gambling much like the permanence of social media. Online wagering is here to stay, no matter its many issues, so how should schools handle gaming concerning those who play their games?

“It’s not going to go away,” Byrne said of trying to figure out gambling in relation to college athletes, who like most everyone else are able to place bets on a wide range of sports with a handful of taps on a phone, even if the NCAA doesn’t allow them to do so (for the most part). “What we have to do is educate.”

Byrne was at the forefront of that education this spring, and not by choice. Alabama in May fired its baseball coach, Brad Bohannon, after what was deemed suspicious activity discovered from an “integrity monitor” during an Alabama-LSU baseball game in late April.

Bohannon had been in touch prior to the contest’s first pitch with a person who was betting on the game, and Alabama’s starting pitcher had been removed from the lineup by Bohannon because of an injury, according to the Associated Press.

The startling news of Bohannon’s dismissal was nothing new to Southeastern Conference commissioner Greg Sankey, who said he was once part of terminating a college golf coach when he was commissioner of the Southland Conference more than two decades ago because of a gambling issue — long before online gambling became so prevalent (and accepted) in the 2020s.

“We should be learning quickly from what’s happening,” Sankey said of the rapid evolution of online gambling and its relation to college sports. “… We ought to be very careful … when you start to blur lines, do you create more problematic behavior?”

Sports betting is now legal in 38 states — Texas is not one of them — and easier than ever for anyone clutching a smart phone. Four states in the SEC have legalized sports gambling: Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi and Tennessee.

The NCAA does not allow athletes, coaches or staff members to bet on amateur, college or pro sports in which the NCAA holds a championship — essentially all of the majors and most sports in the nation. More than 40 athletes from the University of Iowa and Iowa State came under NCAA scrutiny this spring for possible betting violations, for instance, and the primary penalty is loss of eligibility for the athlete.

“The technology and the monitoring have never been better,” A&M athletic director Ross Bjork said. “The more we can do to align ourselves with the integrity pieces of it, the better we can protect the games and student-athletes. There are (phone) apps where you can download the name of a student-athlete, give that to an ‘integrity’ service and if that person places a bet on a device, they can flag them.

“We need to embrace the integrity (side) of it, knowing that society has come a lot farther than we were two years ago, five years ago, that gambling is more acceptable. We’d be naïve to think that our student-athletes aren’t aware of it or not involved in it, so how do we protect the games, and how do we protect them?”

Those are the $10 or $100 or million-dollar questions, ones with no straightforward answers. Should college football programs be required to provide injury reports every game week, for example? A&M coach Jimbo Fisher smiled when he heard the question.

“It’s amazing how the folks who gamble already know (the information) before an injury report is out,” Fisher said. “They all have their avenues of knowing … they know stuff sometimes before we know stuff, as crazy as that sounds. The thing about college kids is they’re more vulnerable than pro kids.

“They’re out there going to class and (having) casual conversations.”

That’s why coaches and college administrators are having more conversations than ever about the rise of sports gambling following a 2018 Supreme Court ruling helped pave the way for more widespread online wagering. According to the American Gaming Association, about 50 million Americans bet on the most recent Super Bowl to the tune of $16 billion, compared to less than half that amount of money the year prior.

“You can take your phone and act like you’re in New Jersey … you’re in Texas but your phone says you’re in New Jersey, and you can place a bet,” Bjork said of workarounds in wagering. “There’s technology you have to safeguard (against).”

Sankey added that one of the darker sides of increased gambling activity is college athletes receiving threats if they don’t perform to expectations.

“We’re also learning more about activity around sports beyond football and men’s basketball, which are traditionally focused on gambling activity,” Sankey said. “Volleyball, baseball, softball (for example) throughout the regular season. We’ve got to continue to adapt, adjust, educate … and our states have to play a role in that in protecting against hostility.

“There are ways to do (so), and some states have passed laws that bar people from being involved in gambling activity who have made threatening statements toward officials or coaches or participants.”  

Georgia football coach Kirby Smart, whose program has won the last two national titles, said he “can’t turn on a TV now without seeing” gambling commercials, as it’s become more accepted across the country thanks primarily to technology and the ease of placing bets.

“There is a lot of debate about what is right and what is wrong, but the NCAA rule is pretty harsh for gambling relative to some other things,” Smart said. “… Kids can (gamble) regardless of what state they’re in — it’s easy access. When I turn on the TV and a sporting event, I see (advertisements) everywhere. We try our best to educate players, and sometimes it takes somebody to have a pitfall to learn from their mistakes.”

The bottom betting line is, like the abundance of alcohol now sold at college sporting events and college athletes benefiting from their names, images and likenesses (NIL) over the past two years, gambling on sports isn’t going anywhere, so college coaches and administrators must figure it out along the way — and ideally be ahead of the game (and gaming).

“You have to be more diligent about how you approach this with players, so they understand the consequences of even some of the slightest things that they may do when it comes to gambling,” said Alabama football coach Nick Saban, who’s won six national titles with the Crimson Tide. “There are a lot of things we need to educate players on so that they don’t get in trouble, as well as staff. That’s all very, very important.

“Every time these things come up we try to make the adaptations that we need to make so that we anticipate what could happen … my dad used to say, ‘It’s always easier to close the barn door before the horse gets out.’ I’ve tried to live with that message.”