Online Betting Handicappers Note NCAA Punishments. A number of schools were punished by the NCAA on Wednesday for poor Academic scores and some of those punishments could impact teams and their online betting odds. One team will not even be on the Internet betting board in next season’s NCAA tournament because of the punishments.
Online betting odds on most teams will not be impacted by the sanctions handed down by the NCAA. Only seven of the 137 teams that were sanctioned on Wednesday are from BCS conferences. Colorado and Syracuse are the teams that could be hurt the most. Both of the school’s basketball teams and the Colorado football team were punished. Colorado will lose one scholarship in basketball and up to four in football while Syracuse could lose up to two basketball scholarships. A team that received a stiff penalty was Portland State who will not be able to compete in next season’s NCAA tournament.
Other teams that were penalized will not impact Internet betting odds. The men’s track teams at Auburn and Cincinnati and the women’s rowing team at West Virginia were penalized. None of those squads are among the major sports so they don’t have odds on the board.
The penalties were imposed by the NCAA to schools whose student athletes did not mean academic standards. The athletes receive one point per semester for staying academically eligible they get another point for staying at the school or graduating. Teams that fall below a certain level are penalized. Teams that consistently perform poorly can receive harsh penalties. The two schools that were penalized the most this year were Florida International and Southeastern Louisiana. They each had seven of their teams that received sanctions. Other schools that had more than two teams receiving penalties were McNeese State, Cal State-Fullerton, Chicago State, Delaware State, Howard, Nicholls State, Georgia Southern, Portland State, Southern University, Southern Utah, Tennessee-Chattanooga and Texas-San Antonio.
The NCAA penalties that were imposed will probably go under the radar with most people. Colorado and Syracuse could definitely be affected though. The Orange is looking at serious problems if they lose scholarships and the Colorado football team has no margin for error. They have been very poor in recent seasons so losing scholarships is just another blow to a poor football team.