What Do You Think Of This - College Sports Fix Possibility

[HDPM]

Here's an article with survey results of college athletes. web page

The percentage of athletes saying they had been approached about fixing games because of gambling debt surprised me. It was very high IMO. And 1.4% who say thay have domne something to alter the outcome? And I suspect the worst out of people. I figured that athletes who get in with gamblers and then fix games were out there, but you would have it occasionally in certain spots. If these numbers are true, the chance of point shaving or game fixing goes way up. What do you guys make of these numbers as guys who bet on the games? Or just follow sports? Is this survey meaningful?

(I don't bet sports very often. I have a rooting interest in scandals because I think they are funny. I really don't care if an inherently corrupt enterprise - college sports - offers a fair gamble. But what say you all?)

[eggzz]

I've been saying this for years, to anyone that would listen. Was a hard core sports bettor in my college years and after, quit about seven years ago, couldn't take the bad beats. I was convinced there was much more point shaving going on at various levels, from college to pro.

One good example is to look back at the Nebraska Cornhusker powerhouses of the early 1990s. You could probably easily determine what the pointspreads were for entire seasons and see what the final scores were. Osborne (known for putting it to his opponents late in the game) was prime for being a 38 point favorite. His team is up 42-7 with two minutes left to go. Instead of having his third stringers in the game, here is Osborne receiving a punt at his ten yard line. With two minutes to go, they proceed to drive down the field and punish the opposing team and pummel the ball across the goal line with nary a few ticks left on the clock. You really had to watch how the game unfolded live to truly appreciate what he would do sometimes. It was like he was not only toying with the other team, but also the degenerate gamblers as well. And I'm speaking from the side that would usually bet on him, so its not like I'm a sore loser against him or anything.

I also call the NFL the National Fixed League. I was a waiter in a local Cleveland steakhouse in the early 90s. Waited on a defensive lineman for the NO Saints. He had a few glasses of wine and was pretty loose, nice guy (yes, it was Sat. night before game), and I asked him if he had a tip for what would happen the next day, I was interested in putting some action on the game. He told me (with a straight face, seemed like he had no reason to lie) that his team was going to win but not cover. They were 3.5 point away favorites. I said cool, thanks, I'll bet the Browns. Browns won the game 17-14, so he was right, but yet he was wrong. Definitely didn't have access to money lines back then.

Hey -- he could have been lying, but really, wouldn't lying about what he said be just as bad? He should have said, dude, we're going to play the best we can, I really don't know what is going to happen, Cleveland is a good team but so are we. Why would he say what he did? And this was just some lineman, not a superstar or anything. Just makes you wonder. People say sports can't be fixed because too many people would have to be involved and there would have been major leaks by now if that was the case, but I will be a conspiracy theorist until the day I die. Something is rotten in the state of professional sports. It is too big of an industry, too much money changes hands for some people not to have a stake in what goes on.

Thats my two cents

[J.R.]

Having spent time around both college athletes and fraternities, I am suprised by how low the numbers are. Gambling on sports, even by the atheletes themselves, amongst the "sportscenter generation" was quite prevalent when I was in college 5 years ago and is still rampant in Boulder, where I live now. Who watches sportscenter (males 18-30) and why (not just to follow their hometown teams). Sports gambling is endemic to college campuses, especially with the advent of internet sportsbooks.

[HDPM]

I was in Boulder during the mccartney era aqnd didn't notice much in terms of gambling. Sure people bet the games, but I didn't hear rumors of any fixes or anything. I didn't hang around the football players tho. the only time I bet them was when I was in las vegas and they had a bowl game. They changed their whole offense to recruit detmer so I bet against them. Line was way off and mccartney's coaching ability came through. [img]/images/graemlins/smirk.gif[/img]

The recruiting hostesses I saw were smokin hot tho. I wished I were an 18 y/o blue chip recruit. [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] CU's selling point has always been sex. I think it is funny they are denying it now.