Players, leagues and fans have been reckoning with the still-unfolding effects of sports gambling since a Supreme Court ruling handed the question of legalization to states in 2018. Each constituency may be arriving at the realization those impacts have mushroomed beyond anyone’s control.
As March Madness gets underway, offensive efficiency is at its highest point in almost three decades.
This year’s games at Gainbridge Fieldhouse are expected to be of particular interest to local fans, as Purdue University is one of the eight teams making the trip.
The eight-card packs, which carry the Bowman U Now brand owned by Topps, went on sale Monday and carry a price tag of $139.99 each.
Tickets for Purdue University basketball games have been in heavy demand all season because of the team’s high ranking and Player of the Year Zach Edey.
Indiana State (28-6) will be in the NIT as a No. 1 seed. The Sycamores are among the nation’s high-scoring teams at 84.4 points a game, bolstered by their school-record 373 made 3-pointers.
The inclusion of the Boilermakers in Indianapolis means there will be major demand for tickets. Purdue has been a hot draw this season, with tickets drawing huge prices on the secondary market.
NCAA President Charlie Baker and other college sports leaders contend the vast majority of the 1,100 NCAA member schools could not afford to treat their athletes as employees and would sponsor fewer teams if athletes were categorized this way.
EA Sports said players who opt in to the game will receive a minimum of $600 and a copy of EA Sports College Football 25.
The move comes a week after a federal judge granted a preliminary injunction in an antitrust suit that challenges NCAA rules against recruiting inducements, saying they inhibit athletes’ ability to cash in on their celebrity and fame.
The Indianapolis-based NCAA said turning rules supported by its members “upside down” will only make an already chaotic situation worse and lessen protections keeping athletes from being exploited.
Jones has started every game for Purdue, part of a five-man unit that has remained unchanged through Purdue’s 24 games heading into Thursday evening’s encounter with Minnesota.
A federal judge said Tuesday he will rule “in short order” on a preliminary injunction to stop the Indianapolis-based NCAA from enforcing its rules governing name, image and likeness compensation for athletes as part of an antitrust lawsuit.
A judge on Tuesday kept in place for now the rules prohibiting name, image and likeness compensation from being used as a recruiting inducement, denying a request for a temporary restraining order by the states of Tennessee and Virginia.
A National Labor Relations Board regional official ruled on Monday that Dartmouth basketball players are employees of the school, clearing the way for an election that would create the first-ever labor union for NCAA athletes.
Coach Rick Pitino, 71, who a history of run-ins with the Indianapolis-based NCAA, said he believes it’s time for the enforcement staff to stand down when it comes to policing member schools.
The NCAA’s deal with CBS and Warner Bros. Discovery for rights to the men’s Division I basketball tournament accounts for about $900 million annually. That means March Madness brought in about 69% of the NCAA’s revenue.
The lawsuit filed in the Eastern District of Tennessee claims the NCAA is “enforcing rules that unfairly restrict how athletes can commercially use their name, image and likeness at a critical juncture in the recruiting calendar.”
Chancellor Donde Plowman called it “intellectually dishonest” for NCAA enforcement staff to pursue infractions cases as if students have no NIL rights or institutions are “willfully violating” a “clear and unchanging set of rules.”
Baker, who started as NCAA president March 1, gave his state of college sports address at a packed symphony hall in the Phoenix Convention Center.
