GAMBLING with the Future of College Sports.

• Author: DOBSON, JAMES C.
• Position: Legislation to prevent gambling on college sports - Statistical Data Included

NOTHING BEATS an October Saturday afternoon at the Los Angeles County Coliseum watching my beloved University of Southern California football team taking it to the likes of the University of Notre Dame or UCLA. Even though Trojan victories have been somewhat scarce of late, I still try mightily to arrange my schedule each fall to be in the Coliseum's sun-soaked stands for at least one game.

Tens of millions of other Americans share my passion for college football. We marvel at the talent, teamwork, determination, and strategy poured into those three- or four-hour battles, and we walk away, win or lose, entertained by the experience. Yet, this treasured pastime is imperiled. A toxic threat looms over the entire collegiate athletic landscape. That threat is gambling.

For two years, I served on the National Gambling Impact Study Commission. In June, 1999, my eight colleagues and I authored a final report replete with more than 70 recommendations to Congress and state and tribal governments. It was during the commission's proceedings that I awakened to the tremendous dangers posed by gambling on collegiate sports. In our final report, we concluded: "Sports wagering threatens the integrity of sports, it puts student-athletes in a vulnerable position, it can serve as a gateway behavior for adolescent gamblers, and it can devastate individuals and careers."

That is why I authored a recommendation, subsequently approved by the commission, to ban gambling on collegiate and amateur athletic events. That recommendation became the basis for Congressional legislation, spear-headed by Sens. John McCain (R.-Ariz.) and Sam Brownback (R.-Kan.) and Reps. Tim Roemer (D.-Ind.) and Lindsey Graham (R.S.C.).

This long-overdue legislation would close the "Nevada loophole" left open by he Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act, passed by Congress in 1992. That bill made it illegal in 49 states to gamble on college sporting events, with the glaring exception of Nevada. As a result, Nevada casinos now reap close to $1,000,000,000 a year in wagers on college football and basketball games.

This bonanza for Nevada wagering establishments comes at a tremendous price to our colleges and universities--and to the athletes themselves. According to National Collegiate Athletic Association president Cedric Dempsey, "The millions of dollars wagered legally on college sports has resulted in more `point-shaving' and `game-fixing' scandals in the 1990s than the previous five decades combined." Those scandals have ensnared dozens of athletes from some of the nation's most prestigious academic institutions:

* At Northwestern University, 11...