When the Rev. Edward A. Malloy, president of the University of Notre Dame, adjourned the final in-person meeting of the NCAA Sports Wagering Task Force recently, members left the national office knowing that their work had only just begun. The 26-person group may have completed its session shelf life November 11 in Indianapolis, but the process of raising awareness and educating about the complex risks involved in sports wagering lives on, perhaps in perpetuity.

The overarching culture of gambling, which in the contemporary world of state lotteries, public casinos and a television audience intrigued by high-rollers spins an intricate web of temptation for and acceptance of risk-taking behaviors, presented Malloy's task force with a challenge. But the group's focused approach has not wavered since members assembled for the first time last summer. Their charge: Ensure the well-being of the student-athlete and protect the integrity of the game.

That may sound simpler than it is.

"But the fact that we did not try to take on the world and attempt to address questions about the trends in the way the culture is headed, or the role and function of gambling in general, freed us up to focus on the two things we said mattered most: the health and well-being of the athlete and the integrity of the game," Malloy said. "We had to be aware of the cultural context within which student-athletes and athletics in general is going to be seen, but we were able to separate out the two issues effectively."

Malloy said he is pleased with the group's work, which will be released in final form in mid- to late January. A core group of the task force has been retained to put the finishing touches on the recommendations that have been shaped over the last six months. The final report will focus on three areas: compliance and policy; education and awareness; and recommendations for alliances with law enforcement and government groups to broaden the reach of the task force's effectiveness. Those three areas defined task force subcommittees that worked intensively to formulate recommendations that would make a difference in an issue that has been difficult to control.

The task force is one of three established recently to address challenges in intercollegiate athletics. NCAA President Myles Brand has formed similar groups to effect change in the recruiting culture in football and basketball, and to recommend ways to protect and enhance Olympic sports at the collegiate level. All have been diverse and inclusive groups that have relied on stakeholders both within and outside of the intercollegiate athletics arena.

"It is becoming commonplace in higher education to use committees and task forces to assemble a cross section of people with special interests who focus on some descriptive common ground and analysis of issues and recommendations on which they can arrive at a consensus," Malloy said. "All of those things were evident in the sports wagering task force."

What prompted the formation of the group was an NCAA study released in May showing that almost 35 percent of male student-athletes and 10 percent of female student-athletes had engaged in some type of sports wagering in the past year. While that was disturbing enough, other findings indicated that about 1.1 percent of football players reported taking money for playing poorly in a game, and 2.3 percent of football players admitted they had been asked to affect the outcome of a contest because of gambling debts.

Those percentages may seem small, but NCAA President Brand thought the time was right to bring more attention to the issue before the trend escalated. Malloy agreed, saying at the time that "it was important to get ahead of the curve." He promised that the task force would not simply provide commentary, "but action steps that will help all of us in preventing the harm that can take place."

Some of the action steps the task force is proposing include expanding a background-check program in place for basketball officials to Division I men's ice hockey and baseball, significantly increasing educational initiatives (see related story, page A2), and establishing appropriate lines of communication to provide reasonable monitoring of point spreads in all collegiate athletics contests.

"We know the legal gambling industry has a vested interest that nothing untoward is happening," Malloy said. "Thus, we want to interact with them so we can be alerted to anomalies such as games being taken off line, changes in betting lines, and other signals that would indicate a potential problem."

Task force member Douglas Hastad, chancellor of the University of Wisconsin, La Crosse, said the task force's efforts will result primarily in an increased awareness -- not just among the membership but the public at large -- about the prevalence of sports wagering in the country, and among student-athletes.

"That heightened awareness hopefully will allow the NCAA to be well-positioned for what I think the task force's second-greatest impact will be, which is to begin to develop positive relationships with the gaming industry, particularly in Nevada," he said. "A third piece, a longer-term piece in my judgment, will be the legislation that might come from this, as well as the challenges associated with enforcement.

"Those would be on a continuum, and I'd assume it would be a marathon, not a sprint."

Cultural challenges

Hastad and others said the task force's highest hurdle was focusing on sports wagering in particular and not on the pervading climate of gambling.

"This is territory that's very challenging for the NCAA to enter," Hastad said. "If we focus on sports wagering and student-athletes, then we certainly are well within our authority to take action, and I hope we do take action. We also need to recognize that, in the state of Nevada and other areas, gaming is a legal activity. Regardless of what we might believe or value personally, it's a legal activity. That means we must be careful how broad a brush we use in looking out for the well-being of the student-athlete, as well as the well-being of the game itself, whatever athletics event is being played."

Malloy pointed to the recent trend of televised poker, often in prime-time slots and aimed at an impressionable audience, as complicating the task force's message to student-athletes that sports wagering is wrong.

"The surge of interest in poker, particularly among male college students, and the way it is fostered by television may just be a fad, but it is a troublesome fad," he said. "It creates a climate in which a lot of people are gambling perhaps for small stakes, but it has relevance since we're dealing with student-athletes who are living and functioning in the same environment."

Grant Teaff, executive director of the American Football Coaches Association and chair of the task force's education and awareness subcommittee, said "Texas Hold 'Em" is a household word, which makes the task force's hand that much more difficult to play.

"When we started our work on the task force, I was overwhelmed because of the magnitude of the problem in this country based on the cultural environment in which we live," Teaff acknowledged. "Gambling in many parts of our culture is second nature."

But Teaff joined other task force members in emphasizing education as the most workable weapon in the long-term battle. First, Teaff said, student-athletes and coaches must understand the risks involved in engaging in sports wagering, and they also must understand the penalties that come with it.

Teaff added that gambling isn't just a male issue, either. Though the percentages of female student-athletes are lower, he said that does not preclude the need for institutions to devote educational efforts toward their female student-athletes.

"But being aware of sports wagering and refraining from it are two different things," he said. "That's where the education comes in, particularly for student-athletes who must know that there are serious consequences for this behavior, as well as the practical ramifications, since it's pretty well proven that you're eventually going to lose money if you gamble.

"It's not the activity in which young people should be involved."

While task force members are not wearing rose-colored glasses as they prepare to roll out their final recommendations, they are unified in saying their work will make a difference.

Hastad said, "I think that the task force, with its recommendations -- and hopefully with support from NCAA member institutions and certainly with some deft, diplomatic discussions with elected officials and business people in the state of Nevada -- we can all begin to recognize what we are all about, and that's student-athlete well-being."

"The package this group will provide represents a toolkit that institutions can use to help educate student-athletes."

That means, as the NCAA Sports Wagering Task Force found out, that it's time to get to work.