The University of Tennessee fired a student worker on the school's in-house broadcast team because he bet on a Vols football game during the 2025 season, according to an NCAA report.
As reported by Adam Sparks of the Knoxville News Sentinel, the student worker placed wagers using Kalshi, a popular but controversial app. "The incident happened while NCAA leadership debated its approach to sports betting, briefly loosened its rules and then rescinded those changes amid a gambling scandal involving other schools," Sparks wrote.
UT's sports gambling incident was the most unique among six minor NCAA violations the athletic department reported in the second half of 2025, according to a document obtained by the Knox News Sentinel through a public records request, according to Sparks.
"The sports gambling infraction was the most interesting, and not just because it's rare," he wrote. "It sheds light on the confusing nature of NCAA rules regarding new gambling apps that are different from traditional sportsbooks."
In October, a student worker employed by UT’s broadcast team placed wagers on NFL, NBA and college football games using the Kalshi app, according to an NCAA report. At least one wager was placed on a Tennessee football game, though that game was not identified in the NCAA report.
The student worker was not identified in the report, either, per Sparks. He filmed contests across multiple sports for live game production, but he did not work with a specific UT team.
The wagers violated NCAA rules which prohibit student-athletes, athletic department staff members or other athletics-related employees from gambling on sporting events.
UT was notified in November about the impermissible wager by ProhiBet, a sports wager monitoring service used by the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL and most college conferences, including the SEC.
According to Sparks, ProhiBet also counts sports betting apps like BetMGM, Caesars Sportsbook and Kalshi among its clients. Its monitoring software flags sports gambling activity by student-athletes, coaches and staff.
The student worker was immediately suspended and ultimately fired from the athletic department, an institutional decision, according to a UT representative who spoke to the Knoxville News Sentinel.
UT student workers go through training that covers NCAA rules regarding sports gambling. As a penalty for the violation, UT is working with ProhiBet for additional training for athletic department employees, Sparks reported.
