The bill, introduced Jan. 31 by U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) and U.S. Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kansas), proposed the elimination of gambling throughout the United States on high school, collegiate and amateur sports, including the Olympics.

Known as the High School and College Gambling Prohibition Act, the bill was introduced in the Senate in part from the recommendation of the National Gambling Impact Study Commission, Leahy said in his statement on the Senate floor.

The NCAA endorsed the two senators in the introduction of this bill.

"I believe our legislation is needed to ensure the integrity of college sports across the country," Leahy said. "Sports betting puts student athletes in vulnerable positions and threatens their integrity and the integrity of college and Olympic sports."

"We've taken a very clear stance on sports wagering on the college level — it's wrong," said Wally Renfro, NCAA spokesman. "Any time, any place."

If passed, the law would close a loophole that was created with the passage of the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992, which outlawed betting on amateur events in all states except Nevada.

Because of this loophole, anyone may travel to cities such as Las Vegas or Reno to place a bet on a sporting event that happens almost anywhere in the country. However, it is illegal to place a bet on a Nevada amateur event anywhere, including within the state.

The reason behind this, according to Nevada Gaming Commission Chairman Steve DuCharme, is that athletes in the state may socialize with the legal bookmakers and betters on a daily basis -- something that would be impossible for athletes at Penn State to do.

DuCharme is second-guessing this legislative effort, however, citing that a ban on legal gambling would be pointless, considering the amount of revenue illegal gambling brings into Nevada.

He said legal gambling brings in less than $2 billion per year, but illegal betting dwarfs that, with upwards of $380 billion per year.

"It would take a change in the culture (to successfully ban gambling on sports)," DuCharme said. "Everybody treats those laws with a wink and a nod. There are probably a number of campuses where people know who the local bookmaker is."

Penn State Athletic Director Tim Curley said athletic administrations around the country need help with this, but the bill is a step in the right direction.

The real problem here might not be the betting aspect of gambling, however. The larger problem, the one that has plagued several high-echelon academic institutions in this past decade, has been point shaving.

Point shaving goes beyond the actual wagering, in that it is used as a means to satisfy the high rollers. Athletes might conspire to match or to beat point spreads, including fumbling the football, dropping passes in the end zone, missing baskets intentionally to "shave" points and make games closer, or even intentionally losing games altogether.

In fact, former North Carolina men's basketball coach Dean Smith said he wants the publication of point spreads to stop altogether.

"Publishing point spreads gives credence to illegal gambling," Smith said in a letter addressed to Leahy and Brownback on Jan. 25, "and, many times, it encourages a person who thinks the point spread is not correct to place an illegal bet."

"What we do know is that the more people gamble on sports, the more people put pressures on the players to perform," Renfro said. "It's one more way for pressure to be placed on the student."

Penn State's athletic program, however, has never become involved in any gambling scandal that could compromise the integrity of competition.

Even so, Curley remains concerned about the welfare of his student-athletes.

"No campus or athletic program is immune to this type of problem that exists," he said. "It can involve any one of us on any one of our campuses."

Unfortunately for many other schools, some close to Penn State, Curley's words already rang true. In fact, a highly publicized gambling scandal hit close to home in the Big Ten in late 1994 and early 1995 at Northwestern.

The Wildcats faced scandals in their two biggest athletic moneymakers -- football and men's basketball. Four football players pled guilty to perjury charges involving gambling on their own games, and one admitted to intentionally fumbling near the goal line in Northwestern's 1994 game against Iowa, according to a press release from Leahy.

Following the football season, the basketball players shaved points off three games against Wisconsin, Michigan and Penn State in February and March of 1995.

"It is easier to do in basketball than football," Michigan State men's basketball coach Tom Izzo said. "If someone's throwing a few bad baskets, it's harder to tell."

Betsy Mosher, senior associate athletic director for administration and compliance at Arizona State, was an associate athletic director at Northwestern at the time of the scandals.

Mosher's current employer, however, also saw time in the gambling limelight earlier this decade. In one of the largest point-shaving scandals ever to rock intercollegiate athletics, two Arizona State players pled guilty to conspiracy to commit sports bribery during several games in 1994, according to the release.

One player, Stevin Smith, collected about $20,000 in each of four games he threw with teammate Isaac Burton Jr., Mosher said. Furthermore, Smith is Arizona State's all-time steals and 3-point shooting leader, with 246 and 316, respectively.

Smith is currently in prison.

"It was just easy money. He (Smith) had gotten in debt," Mosher said. "But then the reality hits, and now, years later, he can't go to the NBA, he has to play overseas, and he's gone to jail. Now, his life is ruined."

Mosher also mentioned the irreparable harm caused by image-tainting scandals such as this, saying athletes on today's Sun Devils team still have questions thrown at them about an issue that happened six years ago.

"It was just two kids, four games, a whole coach ago," she said.

But for a number of years, basketball critics will remember what happened at Arizona State between "two kids and four games." And for many, that's especially embarrassing, considering those miniscule numbers affected many more — a team, an athletic program, a conference and most importantly the institution of intercollegiate athletics.

"Gambling is becoming more accepted throughout society," Curley said, "and yet this is one area where it can have a negative impact."