Pat Narduzzi criticizes NCAA for allowing athletes to bet on pro sports

Pittsburgh head football coach Pat Narduzzi criticized the decision-makers who have permitted NCAA athletes to bet on professional sports.

“It’s absolutely one of the stupidest decisions I’ve ever seen,” Narduzzi told the media on Monday, saying that players could fall into the “disease” of “addiction.”

“I’m not a gambler. So I just don’t understand it. I’m not addicted to anything. I just don’t think it’s a great thing to teach our young people how to do,” Narduzzi continued. “It’s hard enough in the compliance office of trying to get your guys not to gamble — you can gamble at a boxing match, you can gamble on horse races because it’s not an NCAA sport, but who’s gambling on horse races, really, unless you go to the horse track? You can go to the casino and play craps or whatever you want to play. But now, it’s a thing on your phone, you can pick it up, get on an app, and it’s like, what are we doing? Once you do it once, and you win, you want to do it again, it becomes an addiction. I just think it’s not good… It’s a bad deal.”

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Pittsburgh Panthers head coach Pat Narduzzi reacts to a call against the Syracuse Orange during the second half at the JMA Wireless Dome.  (Rich Barnes/Imagn Images)

Narduzzi also noted that simple innocence, combined with carelessness, could lead to severe punishments.

“Push the wrong button on your phone, see what happens. ‘Oh, I thought it was an NFL game, but I pushed the wrong button and put a bet on a college football game.’ I just think it’s not good. And I’m not going to change my tune.”

Narduzzi said he would address the new regulations with his team and offer some advice.

Pat Narduzzi against the Tennessee Volunteers at Neyland Stadium on Sept. 11, 2021, in Knoxville, Tennessee. (Andy Lyons/Getty Images)

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“Stay away. Nothing changes in our room. You guys shouldn’t be doing any of that. Save your money. Put it in the bank. That’s my feelings.”

Beginning Saturday, the NCAA will alter its prohibitions on gambling to make it legal for athletes to wager on professional sports. They will still be banned from placing bets on college athletics.

The rule change was announced just one day before three prominent NBA figures — Chauncey Billups, Terry Rozier and Damon Jones — were arrested by the FBI for their alleged roles in illegal gambling schemes.

Pittsburgh head coach Pat Narduzzi watches the players practice on the field before a college football game between the Pittsburgh Panthers and the University of Miami Hurricanes on Nov. 26, 2022, at the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida.  (Doug Murray/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

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Rozier and Jones were arrested for allegedly leaking nonpublic information to gamblers, while Billups and Jones face charges of knowingly competing in, and monetarily benefitting from, rigged poker games with mafia ties.

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