Happy Gump Day: “Momentum is there” for the NCAA to allow sports wagering by student athletes

Happy Gump Day, one and all.

ICYMI: We’ve been covering football recruiting this week on main, with some particular attention given to remaining targets, as well as the panic induced in some fans because Alabama signed a few three- and low-four star players.

If you missed those, follow the links above

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This is going to help recruiting:

The Crimson Tide’s head coach will serve as a court coach during training camp

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Alabama men’s basketball head coach Nate Oats will be part of the coaching staff for the 2025 USA Basketball Men’s U19 National Team training camp this week in Colorado Springs, Colo.

USA Basketball announced the 33 athletes and set of coaches expected to participate at the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Training Center in Colorado Springs. Training camp begins June 14 with the 12-member roster expected to be announced before the team departs for the 2025 FIBA U19 Men’s World Cup in Switzerland.

Oats is joined as a court coach by Kentucky’s Mark Pope and UNC’s Hubert Davis — North Carolina, Kentucky…and Alabama. Just like we all envisioned six or seven years ago, huh?

Arizona’s Tommy Lloyd will be the floor coach for the travel team, but Nate gets some insider time with elite prospects during this developmental period. And that can only help the Tide down the road.

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Nate and KDB are not the only ones barnstorming for talent. Murphy headed to his native Iowa and returned with former Ms. Iowa POTY, two-time All-Big Ten infielder Jena Young:

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Two-time All-Big Ten First Team infielder Jena Young will join Alabama softball with two years of eligibility remaining.

Young started all 99 games across two seasons at Iowa, earning back-to-back All-Big Ten First Team honors. This season, she earned NFCA Second Team All-Region accolades while leading the Hawkeyes with a .359 batting average, 56 hits, 43 runs scored, five triples, 34 walks and seven stolen bases while ranking second on the team with 10 doubles and 27 RBIs. As a freshman in 2024, she boasted a .373 batting average, including a .382 mark in conference play, recording a hit in all but 10 games including 15 multi-hit efforts

Young still does not address the Tide’s power outage, but at least she can get rake and land on base. Whether her bat translates to the far better SEC remains TBD. But, hey, at least we know Murphy is trying!

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Thomas Castellanos, writing checks the Noles’ derriere almost certainly cannot cash, is making the rounds as an object lesson in what not to say.

South Carolina phenom and one of the early 2025 Heisman favorites, LaNorris Sellers, is not falling for that one:

During an appearance on the Zach Gelb Show, South Carolina quarterback LaNorris Sellers made it clear that he still respects the Tide.

“Shoot, Alabama’s still Alabama to me,” Sellers said. “They were good last year. They’re a good team. They’re big, strong and fast. That’s how I remember watching them growing up, and I don’t really think they’ve changed that much. Obviously they’ve got a new coaching staff and all that, but that’s still SEC ball, that’s still Alabama.”

I think there’s going to be a concerted attempt to reassert dominance the next few years, as the Crimson Tide storms a nation that thinks it can hit reset now that Saban has retired. I would guess that’s not the last time we hear, “Alabama is still Alabama.”

South Carolina is a weird team to watch too. They enter this season with a lot of buzz…but also a lot of questions. And Beamer has yet to string together back-to-back great seasons either. Such is the nature of being a B-tier SEC program.

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In fact, Ari Wasserman made Sellers’ very point this morning: Alabama will enjoy a significant talent advantage over almost every team they play. So, sally forth and whip some ass.

Make people scared of Alabama again.

DeBoer gets some grace, at least from me. Sure, last season didn’t live up to the standard. Losing to Vanderbilt and a decimated Oklahoma team is bad, no question, but last season doesn’t define Alabama. DeBoer signed an elite-level recruiting class in 2025, maintained a big chunk of the roster and had an excellent portal class. On paper, there aren’t many teams with as much talent as Alabama. The Crimson Tide are still good enough to make the CFP and possibly go on a run.

Nobody has to tell DeBoer what’s at stake. People in Alabama aren’t patient, nor should they be given what they know is possible for their program.

So go do it. Be scary again. The longer you live in a world where you aren’t, the harder it is to get back.

The most obvious way to do so? Destroy Florida State to open the season, and then two weeks later end Georgia’s 32-game home winning streak.

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Well, this is about the worst damn idea I’ve ever seen:

This week, NCAA leaders could advance new legislation that would significantly change the permissible sports wagering landscape in college, sources tell Sports Illustrated. The last wall prohibiting college athletes, coaches and staffers from betting on professional sports could come down—though perhaps not without a fight.

Momentum has been building toward such a change for a couple of months. The NCAA Division I Board of Directors voted 21–1 in April in favor of directing the D-I Council to “adopt legislation to deregulate the prohibition on wagering on professional sports.” The council moved the proposal along in May to a formal vote, which is expected to take place Tuesday or Wednesday.

You simply cannot incentive college students to gamble on professional sports, not in a landscape where their earning potential has been (theoretically) capped by House. There is a world of difference between acknowledging that adults can and do make adult decisions in acquiring vices…and this. Any guard rail removed from clean competition is one way too many.

Even the pro leagues recognize this: No team personnel or league employee may bet on any sport, of any kind, in the NFL. The NBA doesn’t let pros bet on college games. NFL players can’t bet on college football if there are fantasy odds. MLB cannot bet on baseball of any sort — not even international play.

Modest those protections may seem, but the NCAA proposal doesn’t even include them.

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In a nice bit of cross-promotion, check out the Field Gull preview of Robbie Outz, the newest H-Back for the Seattle Seahawks:

Ouzts is actually a little bigger than Tukuafu, a converted DL. The rest of the scores are pretty close with Ouzts performing slightly better in most categories.

This is a big man, who will hopefully be opening up big holes for the running backs!

Gut reaction to the pick

I’m one of those people who thinks that old school football with a fullback is fun, so I was all for drafting Ouzts.

Then I saw a picture of him…

They are enamored of Big Rob’s stache and athleticism in equal measure:

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Greg Byrne is the SEC’s rep this year on the NCAAB competition committee that is weighing whether to expand the NCAA tournament.

As we’ve grown to expect, he was as useful as tits on a steer. However, reading through his banally destructive equivocation and admin-speak, I think I’m reading, “If they pay me, sure I’ll blow the thing up”:

“The question I keep asking myself — teams 69 through 72, or 69 through 76, do they have a chance to win the tournament?” Byrne told WSNP. “A few years ago, Ole Miss was the last one to get in the baseball tournament, and they won a championship. So there’s been a sport that’s been the case. I don’t know if that’s the case in basketball. That’s a question I continue to kind of go back to.

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“There’s a lot of moving parts to make it happen. We’ll see if the demand is there from a television standpoint to justify the increase in teams. I know I’m not giving you a specific answer, but it’s going to be a wait-and-see and see where we get to. But I think a decision is going to have come here sooner than later.”

One should not take his assertion about competition too seriously either. The tournament is, and has always been, very chalk-heavy. Since expansion to 64 teams, a 1-seed has won almost 2/3rds of the time. And a Top 3-seed has done so 87% of the time. In fact, just three teams below a 4-seed have ever cut down the nets. He knows that — every athletic director would have to know that.

And, safe to say that come March, Team No. 72 isn’t going to be on that list of title winners either; not now, not ever. It’s about money, and these administrators will do what they have done for the past decade: make everything worse to chase a few more bucks.

Why does it seem as though the NCAA is only capable of bad decisions?

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And, finally, your moment of levity. And this one takes a helluva dark turn. LOL.

Have a great day,

Roll Tide

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