Even small mistakes can become big headaches for a college football program. Alabama clearly isn’t taking any chances. The school even let go of two student workers after they were linked to a minor sports betting issue.

New details shared by Alabama beat reporter Nick Kelly show the school voluntarily disclosed six Level III NCAA violations during the 2025-26 academic year. The cases involved four different athletic programs and were included in the university’s annual compliance report. None of them rise anywhere close to the level of a major NCAA investigation. But two cases stood out because they involved sports wagering. And the reason is that the topic has become one of college sports’ biggest headaches.

Alabama’s annual NCAA compliance filing says two student employees were fired for placing bets on Kalshi, a prediction‑market site. One supported the football team’s film and video work; the other was on staff with Crimson Tide Productions. Neither held a coaching title, but both fell under the NCAA’s ban on sports wagering.

The school treated the two cases the same, ending their employment and saying it will strengthen gambling education and monitoring, including a sharper focus on predictive markets like Kalshi and compliance tools such as Prohibet.

The NCAA classifies Level III violations as isolated breaches of conduct that provide little or no competitive advantage. 

“Violations that are isolated or limited in nature; provide no more than a minimal recruiting, competitive or other advantage; and do not include more than a minimal impermissible benefit,” the NCAA stated. “Multiple Level IV violations may collectively be considered a breach of conduct. “

Alabama’s only football compliance issue stemmed from a recruiting mistake. A member of the coaching staff reached out to a player before NCAA rules allowed any direct contact. The Tide heard about the violation earlier in January and intervened before the NCAA could. 

The staff member faced disciplinary action after the violation. Along with receiving an official warning, they had to go through more NCAA compliance training and were removed from recruiting activities for one week. Alabama also limited its recruitment of the athlete, preventing any face-to-face meetings for 30 days and cutting off all calls, messages, emails, and other forms of electronic contact for the next two weeks.

Alabama didn’t stop at reporting the mistake. The program also gave up the chance to make multiple off-campus visits with that recruit, limiting itself to just one for the rest of the school year. That’s usually how these smaller NCAA cases are handled. By fixing the problem, reminding everyone of the rules, and moving on with tighter safeguards in place. None of the other violations were major either. 

Minor violations, but Alabama isn’t leaving anything to chance 

Alabama also chose to put the other minor violations on record instead of brushing them aside. One came from women’s soccer with another recruiting violation. The school punished the department by blocking the entire coaching staff from contacting the recruit and their family for two weeks.  

The other two sports involved gymnastics and men’s tennis. Both departments chose to hold their end-of-season banquets during final exam week. That’s something the NCAA prohibits. That’s why Alabama is correcting them by giving those players in those two sports two extra holidays during the 2026-27 academic year. 

These cases were included in Alabama’s yearly NCAA rules report for the period between July 1, 2025, and June 30, 2026. None of them are major violations, and they won’t have any impact on the school’s teams. Colleges today are quick to report minor mistakes and correct them early, knowing that overlooking minor issues can sometimes lead to much bigger headaches later.