Are you a college student who likes to play fantasy sports? Then tread carefully, because the NCAA has a rule in place that bars student-athletes from wagering on games that provide the winner of such wagers a prize of any sort. This includes fantasy leagues where the season-ending winner (such as for football) wins money or other prizes. The story can be found here.

The rule, according to the story, is as follows:

The NCAA has said students, athletic department staff members, conference office staff members and anyone affiliated with the athletics department in any way is prohibited from being involved in any type of sports wagering including fantasy sports leagues where a prize of any kind is given to the winner.

This means that student-athletes are relegated to playing in free leagues. What about upgrading to Stattracker on Yahoo! Fantasy Sports or something like that? This is apparently a gray area, and students would be best served by avoiding any semblance of impropriety.

So the moral is: play fantasy, but play the free, stripped down version. And don’t bet on it!