College Player Prop Bans

Sports bettors in several states have already seen a key betting line disappear: college player props, where gamblers can bet on individual athlete performances. Whereas props were once available on marquee college players or in marquee games, a patchwork of state laws has begun restricting these bets, with the NCAA successfully pushing several gaming commissions to ban them outright.

The national rule split

Contrary to popular belief, colleges sports bettors don't face a single nationwide rule for whether they can bet on individual college players' props. Instead, states have jurisdiction over sports betting and, until recently, had been allowing bettors to bet on major college sports' marquee athletes' individual performances. But a debate has raged since 2024 about whether states should restrict or outright eliminate this form of gambling, akin to a single-player version of a prop bet on pro athletes.

By September 2026, after several state gaming commissions had either banned player props or restricted them to college teams from other states, the national rule had indeed become a patchwork of state limits or outright bans on scoring single-player results on major college athletes.

States with outright bans

While some outlets elevated a bellwether ban on college athlete props such as the one in September 2024, an assessment just six months later tracked at least 15 states barring any college athlete prop bets: Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Tennessee, Vermont, and Virginia. Many of those states also barred college betting entirely, but at the state commission level removing college player props was a distinct ruling.

States with in-state-only restrictions

Not all states have banned college props outright, but a host of states have instead settled on a middle ground: restraining prop bets to college athletes from out of state. Missouri, for instance, allows sporting bets overall, even allowing sports bettors to bet on college teams, including in-state teams. But individual player props are only allowed on out-of-state college athletes, not on Missouri teams' athletes. That labeling—whether the ban includes in-state or out-of-state athletes—is part of the national split.