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With March Madness about to get into full-swing, the NCAA has launched a new campaign titled “Don’t Be A Loser” in an attempt to curb players being harassed by sports bettors. It was immediately met with derision on social media by sports fans.
“Sports betting is everywhere – your friends, family and classmates are placing bets, ads are impossible to miss, and the prevalence of harassment from angry fans who lost a bet continues to increase,” the NCAA wrote on its website announcing the new campaign.
“The NCAA launched a new video as part of the Draw the Line campaign titled, ‘Don’t be a Loser,’ calling on fans to curb abuse directed at you and your teammates. College athletics is no place for harassment. You should be supported and celebrated for your academic and athletic achievements, not targeted with threats and abuse by Losers. It is time we Draw the Line and put an end to the abuse.”
Here is that video…
“The horrific messages we are seeing across online platforms is absolutely unacceptable,” NCAA President Charlie Baker said in a press release announcing the initiative. “Angry fans are sending numerous abusive messages and threats to student-athletes, publicly and privately, because of lost bets placed on the athlete’s performance in a game. These actions severely threaten student-athlete mental health and well-being, while harming the college athletics environment. We need fans to do better. We need states to do better and ban player props that target student-athletes and enable detrimental abuse.”
Well-intentioned? Perhaps. A giant hanging slider for sports fans to take their best cut at? Definitely.
“Even when they’re on the right side of an issue, the NCAA remains pompous and tone-deaf,” one fan wrote on X (Twitter).
“This is rich coming from losers like @NCAA @NCAA_PR they made billions off of players and have allowed NIL without guardrails,” read another comment.
“FACT: The type of people that choose to harass college athletes bc they’re betting on games aren’t exactly the type that will see a commercial and suddenly have a conscience,” another fan suggested.
Good point.