Ay-Ziggy-Zoomba.com

They must think something is up.

The NCAA plans to begin more closely monitoring betting lines on games and to start background checks on baseball and hockey officials as part of its antigambling efforts.

pdt1081 wrote:They must think something is up.

The NCAA plans to begin more closely monitoring betting lines on games and to start background checks on baseball and hockey officials as part of its antigambling efforts.

It mentions the tournament games (I assume they mean postseason tournaments, not holiday tournaments) which does make sense to me because the games are on tv and everything. Now maybe I've just never attended or worked for a school where a trip to the NCAA tournament is a given, because I can't see hockey guys throwing a tourney game for money. At the very least, I can't see there being enough money in it to make someone consider it (afterall, it's not as if the Frozen Four get's even a quarter of the attention of March Madness, so I'd guess the monetary incentive is much smaller).

I'd be shocked to find out that they're worried about regular season games though. I mean, who really cares about a regular season game between LSSU and Ferris, or RPI and Clarkson?

It would seem to me that baseball and hockey should be two of the sports the NCAA should be LEAST concerned about in terms of officials being influenced by gambling. Football, especailly OOC games are rife with some indications that there may be something nefarious going on with the officiating, but even there it isn't ever really obvious.

I guess I just don't get why resources are being expended on looking into these two sports. I am kind of glad they are though, because college hockey is so great in my mind because of its purity. Anything that helps to preserve that (no matter how misdirected) is a good thing in my opinion.

McConvey wrote:I'd be shocked to find out that they're worried about regular season games though. I mean, who really cares about a regular season game between LSSU and Ferris, or RPI and Clarkson?

Maybe your query provides the answer. . . Perhaps if offenders feel that nobody cares about a lowly ECAC game they will slip under the radar with a questionable call or dive here and there. . .

It struck me as odd that they stated hockey and baseball. Maybe they think that if they concentrate on the "lower" sports, football and basketball will take care of themselves before they get there to investigate. That way, when they finally get around to it, those sports look clean.

Or, they want to start with baseball and hockey because they are the least likely to have officials influenced by gambling. After their investigations of baseball and hockey, they say "Since we didn't find anything in these two sports, we feel it is not necessary to look at any more sports."

Or, maybe they think something more serious is going on in these sports and are using the antigambling as a front.

Guess we won't know what's going on till the reports are released, if we ever really do know the truth.