NCAA President Baker Seeks Dramatic Limits on Prop Betting

NCAA President Charlie Baker said he hopes to dramatically limit prop betting at the collegiate level and beyond. CBS News reported that Baker described the practice as having changed the character and culture of fandom while demeaning student athletes. Baker recounted hearing fans direct comments at players during college basketball games about specific prop bets.

He said classmates, friends and family members regularly ask athletes not to take the first pitch, first shot or first pass. CBS News reported Baker called the situation disgraceful, demeaning and incredibly demoralizing. The interview was taped July 1 and aired Sunday on Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan.

A prop bet is a wager on an individual player or event not tied to the final outcome of a game. Baker said the NCAA was the first organization to raise the alarm about prop bets after he began hearing concerns from student athletes in spring 2023. A 2024 NCAA report found nearly 750 instances of sports betting-related abuse and match-fixing allegations, accounting for 12 percent of all abuse identified in its championships.

A 2025 study found 36 percent of Division I men's basketball student athletes reported experiencing abuse on social media related to sports betting in the previous year. The NCAA began a 2023 campaign to advocate for stronger regulations. Earlier this year Baker called on state gambling commissions to eliminate prop bets and urged the body overseeing prediction markets to suspend such markets until new rules are in place.

Baker said the NCAA runs the largest integrity program in the world and operates a surveillance program at major championships that tracks social media traffic and notifies authorities about abuse. Baker expressed satisfaction that professional leagues have begun to act.