Pitt's Heather Lyke believes gambling doesn't belong in college athletics

Heather Lyke is not on a crusade to shut down casinos, crush betting apps or eliminate sports gambling — now legal in 18 states and the District of Columbia.

“I think we all recognize that gambling is omnipresent in our country,” Pitt’s athletic director said Thursday on a conference call with reporters. “But the addition of college gambling is a different level.”

Lyke testified remotely Wednesday in front of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, hoping to launch awareness and support for the prohibition of gambling on college sports.

She said the ACC and its 15 member institutions, including presidents and chancellors, athletic directors, faculty and the conference’s student-athlete advisory council, oppose gambling on their games.

The fear, she said, is student-athletes, many of whom crave walking-around money beyond their scholarships, will be exposed to temptation, possibly jeopardizing the integrity of the games — the games it is her job to protect.

There are numerous examples of point-shaving scandals in college basketball, going as far back as 1950 at the City College of New York and six other schools. Other incidents followed at Boston College, Tulane, Arizona State and Northwestern into the 1990s.

Yet, the threat of gamblers hooking up with athletes is more acute today, Lyke said.

She bases her concerns on the U.S. Supreme Court widening the scope of sports betting in 2018 when it struck down the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992 (PASPA). Now, legal sports betting can occur — and often flourish — in any state that allows it, not just Nevada and New Jersey.

“There is more exposure,” she said.

“If you were a bookie (before social media), you had to figure out a way to get in touch with the student-athlete. You had to hang out at a stadium and see them leaving and walking to their car, or see them walk across campus or try to figure out how to connect to their buddy or roommate or classmate.

“Now, with devices, they can just follow them on any of their social media platforms. The proliferation of online betting makes it simply so easy to turn your college football stadium into a mini-casino.”

She said student-athletes are more susceptible to financial temptations than professional athletes.

Or, as West Virginia president E. Gordon Gee told reporter Sean Isabella of Community Newspaper Holdings Inc. two years ago, “Approach LeBron James and say, ‘I’ll give you $10,000 to miss a shot.’ Well, he’s not going to do that. On the other hand, students are very vulnerable.”

Bill Miller, president and CEO of the American Gaming Association who also testified Wednesday, estimated billions of dollars will be bet annually on college sports with unregulated offshore sportsbooks and local bookmakers.

Miller agreed unpaid student-athletes can be vulnerable to temptation. But he added, “It is also perhaps the most compelling reason to apply strict regulatory oversight, and that only comes from the legal market.”

Lyke said feedback from senators on her testimony was positive.

“We’ve given them some guidelines,” she said, “and I think they are going to continue to work on what they referenced as a bill of rights for student-athletes.”

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