Skip to main content

The Official Website of the Golf Coaches Association of America

 
   

JR

NCAA Study Reveals Men?s College Golf with Highest Sports Wagering Participation

NORMAN, Okla. ? In conjunction with the Faculty Athletics Representatives Association Annual Meeting and Symposium in St. Louis, the NCAA has released the 2008 Study on Collegiate Wagering. This research is the most comprehensive of its kind and includes anonymous data from approximately 20,000 student-athletes.

As a measure of gambling activity, the research gauges the level of sports wagering in three categories: social, frequent and heavy. Social is characterized as wagering once per year or more. Frequent is defined as once per month or more and heavy use is defined as once per week or more.

Across the board, sports wagering numbers within the sport of men?s golf have increased and are currently at levels much higher than those seen among any other student-athlete group. While 12 percent of Division I men?s basketball student-athletes bet on sports socially during the past year, 40 percent of Division I men?s golfers have done the same and eight percent reported wagering on sports weekly. The study only involved NCAA student-athletes and not other affiliations of collegiate athletics.

?We take this issue very seriously,? said GCAA President Mark Crabtree. ?We look forward to working with the NCAA, our membership and our student-athletes to educate them on all forms of gambling. This is an issue we will address ? with the assistance of the NCAA - at our national convention in early December and work with the entire golfing community throughout the year in an effort to improve the situation.?

Sports wagering - and its affect on student-athletes - will be one of the prime focuses of the GCAA National Convention Dec. 7-9. In the coming month, the GCAA National Advisory Board and national office staff will work with the NCAA department of Agent, Gambling and Amateurism Activities to identify the major areas of concern and the best avenues to move forward to educate men?s college golfers and change the current culture regarding sports wagering.