Notre Dame has suspended its men’s swimming team for at least one academic year due to internal gambling violations, the university announced in a statement Thursday. Notre Dame is handing down the punishment as a result of numerous NCAA violations related to sports gambling, according to the university.
Although the statement did not clarify the exact nature of the violations, Sports Illustrated reports that the team created its own sports book to place bets on their own swimming performances. Most of the student-athletes returning for the upcoming season are believed to have placed wagers, per Sports Illustrated.
In the statement, Notre Dame Vice President and Athletic Director Pete Bevacqua said that an external investigation revealed a “deeply embedded team culture dismissive of Notre Dame’s standards for student-athletes.”
“While individual conduct varied, the overwhelming cultural dynamic on the team necessitates a full suspension,” Bevacqua said in the statement.
Per Sports Illustrated, the team was informed of the punishment on Thursday, giving student-athletes (including incoming freshmen) time to transfer before classes start on August 27.
“We profoundly regret that the small number of team members who did not participate in the conduct, and those who were planning on joining the team this fall, will also suffer the consequences of this decision,” Bevacqua continued. “While we are certainly disappointed by the actions that led to the decision, we recognize that our students make mistakes, and our goal is to educate and support them to the best of our ability.”
The women’s swimming and diving and men’s diving programs had no involvement and will be unaffected by the punishment. In the statement, Bevacqua also clarified that the coaches and staff were unaware of the gambling and “other troubling behaviors,” and that they fully cooperated with the investigation.
With gambling increasingly becoming a problem on college campus, the NCAA has strict gambling rules in place for student-athletes, which were updated last summer. Per the current NCAA rules, athletes who bet on their own team or on their own schools (in any sport) can face “permanent loss of collegiate eligibility in all sports.”
Some of the Notre Dame swimmers placed bets on other sports and other schools, according to Sports Illustrated; while this is still in violation of NCAA rules, it will yield a lesser punishment than the internal gambling. Punishment for wagers on professional sports or other sports/schools unrelated to the athlete are based on the cumulative value, and increase in severity as the value increases.
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