Prediction market Kalshi filed this week to begin offering its users the ability to trade contracts on NCAA athletes entering the transfer market.
The idea drew quick and widespread backlash across the college sports world as scores of individuals that cover the NCAA were unanimous in asserting that it could be an ethical disaster of epic proportions. After the furor over the transfer portal proposal, Kalshi backed down from offering them on their platform.
However, that move wasn’t enough to avoid the public scorn of NCAA president Charlie Baker.
In a Thursday morning post on X, Baker said, “The NCAA vehemently opposes college sports prediction markets” in a scathing statement.
The @NCAA vehemently opposes college sports prediction markets. It is already bad enough that student-athletes face harassment and abuse for lost bets on game performance, and now Kalshi wants to offer bets on their transfer decisions and status — this is absolutely unacceptable…
— Charlie Baker (@CharlieBakerMA) December 18, 2025
“The NCAA vehemently opposes college sports prediction markets. It is already bad enough that student-athletes face harassment and abuse for lost bets on game performance, and now Kalshi wants to offer bets on their transfer decisions and status — this is absolutely unacceptable and would place even greater pressure on student-athletes while threatening competition integrity and recruiting processes. Their decisions and future should not be gambled with, especially in an unregulated marketplace that does not follow any rules of legitimate sports betting operators,” Baker’s post said.
Professional ports leagues and college athletics are both starting to take notice of the growing interest and inherent landmines in prediction markets like Kalshi and Polymarket. The NFL has already written a letter to congress protesting the unregulated industry because of its wild west nature and ability to be easily corrupted.
Now that the NCAA has come out in such a strong way against prediction markets, it’s going to up the pressure on somebody with some kind of regulatory power to do something. The legalization of sports betting has led to governments, leagues, and sportsbooks building the plane as they are flying it. And even in a highly regulated environment, we have already seen multiple major sports betting scandals in the NBA and Major League Baseball.
If these prediction markets are able to operate with unfettered ability offering what amounts to prop bets on anything and everything, the potential for similar scandals could rise astronomically.
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