Gambling reform in college sports? Tennessee may be paving a unique path.

Good morning.

On Tuesday, Big Ten athletes sent a letter to NCAA president Charlie Baker urging him to continue pushing for limits on prop bets. “While we understand that sports betting is becoming increasingly more common across the country and allows for states to generate increased tax revenue, prop betting represents unique risks at the college level,” the group wrote in the letter — and that allusion to “unique risks” is what I wrote about in today’s piece.

A state representative from Tennessee is attempting to take substantial steps toward curbing the ill effects that gambling can have on athletes and bettors, and his efforts might give us a glimpse at future change.

I hope you enjoy the story. Thanks for reading, and please consider a paid subscription for more original reporting, like today’s dispatch, that you won’t find anywhere else.

— Kyle

Gambling reform in college sports? Tennessee may be paving a unique path.

John Ray Clemmons isn’t a household name in sports. Even in Tennessee politics, the Democratic state representative keeps a relatively low profile. But the Tennessee statehouse could become the next frontline in the fight over sports betting’s impact on college athletics — and if so, Clemmons would be impossible to ignore.

He’s emerged as one of the most proactive lawmakers in the country on an issue that college administrators, coaches and athletes agree is reaching a tipping point: the collision of legalized sports gambling and college sports. Drawing on personal experience and mounting NCAA data, Clemmons has introduced two bills that are noteworthy in their scope and ambition.

His urgency is rooted at home. The 48-year-old father of three boys (16, 14 and 11) became acutely aware of how pervasive and persuasive sports betting has become when his sons asked about wagers and odds. That concern intersected with another troubling trend he tracked: angry bettors harassing college athletes. 

The result was a pair of bills authored by Clemmons and designed to address both of those issues.

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