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SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey speaks to reporters during the conference's spring meetings on Tuesday in Destin. (RALPH D. RUSSO/Associated Press))
DESTIN — When it comes to sports wagering, information is a commodity and even a morsel of news that is not widely available can be valuable.
As college sports experiences some of the negative consequences of ubiquitous legal betting on sporting events, could more transparency be among the potential safeguards?
“If everybody’s giving an injury report, I have no problem giving an injury report,” Georgia coach Kirby Smart said this week. “They do it in the NFL. I was in the NFL. That’s not a huge deal as long as it’s a level playing field.”
A month highlighted by gambling-related firings and potential NCAA infractions in college sports motivated the Southeastern Conference to put extra emphasis on the issue at this week's spring meetings.
Commissioner Greg Sankey called on U.S. Integrity, a company that works with professional sports leagues and college conferences — including the SEC since 2018 — to monitor events for gambling improprieties, to give multiple presentations to SEC coaches and administrators on Wednesday and Thursday.
That was a late add to the agenda, Sankey said.
“We now have the issues emerging as it's become inculturated,” he said. “We don’t have a choice but to pay a high level of attention.”
At Alabama, baseball coach Brad Bohannon was fired during an investigation by gaming officials in Ohio of suspicious bets on the Tide’s game against LSU in late April.
Bohannon was in contact with a Indiana man who was betting on the game at a sportsbook located at the Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati.
The Tide’s starting pitcher was a late scratch because of an injury in that game.
“What we have done is we’ve reported to the proper people, and anything that we need to do to help cooperate and support those investigations we’ve done and will continue to do whatever we’re asked,” Alabama athletic director Greg Byrne said Wednesday.
The same Indiana man, Bert Neff of Mooresville, is also at the center of an investigation by the University of Cincinnati that led to two members of the baseball staff being fired earlier this month.
Conference leaders talk a lot about educating athletes and reinforcing the NCAA's stringent rules against betting on most sports. An athlete that gambles on a sport the NCAA sponsors — at any level from college to professional — risks their eligibility.
Sports wagering is now legal in 38 states, including Iowa, where more than 40 athletes at the universities of Iowa and Iowa State were identified in an investigation of potential illegal wagering.
“We had coaches in that meeting room that were asking questions from a betting standpoint, gambling standpoint, what’s legal, what’s not legal?” South Carolina coach Shane Beamer said. “So if we have questions about it and I have questions about it, then surely our student-athletes do as well.”
Texas A&M coach Jimbo Fisher said information can run wild on a college campus.
“The thing about college kids, they’re a lot more vulnerable than pro (players) because they’re out going to class and who they talk to in a casual conversation ... It’s easy to get something (from them),” Fisher said.
Fisher doesn't believe getting out in front of the leaks with an injury report would help much.
“Because how bad is the hamstring? How bad is the knee? Is it probable? Is it questionable?” Fisher said.
Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin said: “You’re going to solve a few problems and create a lot more with that.”
LSU coach Brian Kelly said he thinks about how he can tighten the circle of people in the football building who have access to the team's internal injury report.
“Our injury report goes to over 25 different people. I’m not sure that I need that to go to 25 different people. I think maybe that the injury report needs to come to the head coach and the head coach can make decisions on where that information goes to," Kelly said.
Sankey said an injury report is not coming anytime soon in the SEC, nor does it address the vast potential problems of wide-spread, legalized gambling.
He said increased gambling activity has led athletes to face more scrutiny and criticism — even threats — online when they don't perform well.
“I told our football coaches that the simple solution of ‘we want an injury report’ is not what I’m going to think about,” Sankey said. “But as information becomes more and more in demand because of the increases in sports gambling, we’re going to have to think about a sophisticated response to managing our information.”
TEXAS PREFERS 9-GAME CONFERENCE SCHEDULE
When Texas does join the SEC next year, the Longhorns prefer to play as many league games as possible and Texas A&M every year.
“For where we’re at, and having Oklahoma at a neutral site, I prefer more games,” Texas athletic director Chris Del Conte said Wednesday.
That might have to wait.
The SEC remained undecided on increasing the number of conference games it plays in 2024 from eight to nine, with some athletic directors saying they would like more time and information.
“That’s an interesting way for them to communicate their perspective,” Sankey said.
Sankey reiterated that among the options under consideration is a short-term agreement to stay at an eight-game conference schedule, with a commitment to reconsidering the model in the next year or so.
A year ago when the SEC was debating eight or nine, the conference was operating under the expectation that Texas and Oklahoma would arrive in 2025, after the schools’ contractual obligations to the Big 12 had expired.
A deal between the Big 12, the schools and television partners was struck earlier this year to allow the Longhorns and Sooners to join the SEC next year and become a 16-team conference.
A bigger conference made playing more conference games seem like a natural, but some schools, among them Kentucky and Arkansas, are concerned about the rigor of more SEC games.
A simple majority vote is all that is needed to implement a schedule model. While Texas and Oklahoma lean toward nine, they also don’t get a vote until they are full-fledged members.
There are also financial considerations. There is no guarantee that ESPN, which becomes the exclusive network home of the SEC next year, is willing and able to pay extra for more conference games.
Adding more conference games would also mean canceling some already contracted nonconference games for SEC programs.
Another factor: The expansion of the College Football Playoff from four to 12 teams happens in 2024. The SEC anticipates that being a windfall for the league, and that it will routinely have multiple teams in the field.
“The expanded playoff has to be discussed,” Alabama athletic director Greg Byrne said. “Those additional games, what does that load look like? To me, if we’re going to play more Power Five and SEC games, let’s make sure we’re rewarded for the strength of schedule.”
The SEC athletic directors are scheduled to meet Thursday with the university presidents, who ultimately have the final say on the matter.
Will they vote before leaving the Florida Gulf Coast?
“We’ll see,” Sankey said. “Stay tuned.”