The Southeastern Conference (SEC), one of the four remaining college football power conferences, is mandating injury reporting amid the spread of sports betting in the US. The Big Ten last year was the first to do so and Mid-American Conference last week also required reporting.
The SEC injury reports mandate is not for football only, it also extends to men’s and women’s college basketball and baseball.
The requirement is in direct response to the rise of legal wagering in the US. College football administrators see it as a tool to protect student-athletes from the betting public. Injury reporting is a staple in US professional sports leagues.
SEC teams will kick off their first full day of the 2024 season Saturday. Last week, No 10 Florida State played at Georgia Tech.
“This availability reporting policy is intended to reduce pressure from outside entities seeking participation information and represents a commitment of our 16 institutions to provide enhanced transparency to support efforts to protect our student-athletes and the integrity of competition,” SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey said via press release.
Reports due three days ahead of kickoff
SEC football teams will be required to submit injury reports three days before a conference game. It’s not clear from the release if that means for every game, or just games within the SEC. Teams will then be required to update the list daily until 90 minutes before kickoff.
Reports for football games will be available on the SEC wesbite. As of Thursday afternoon, clicking through the link resulted in an error message.
Earlier this month, the coaches from Texas and Alabama spoke out in favour of having the reports. And this week, Georgia coach Kirby Smart said he is “great with it as long as we’re all doing it”.
Here’s what will go inside the injury reports
For basketball and baseball games, injury reports will be due the night before a game and updated on game day.
The conference laid out what should be included in an injury report. Teams can use the following designations leading up to game day: “available”, “probable”, “questionable”, “doubtful,” or “out”. On game days, the designations will be “available”, “game time decision”, or “out”.
Football teams will be fined on a sliding scale starting at $25,000 for the first offence of failing to comply with the reporting requirements and up to $100,000 for a third (or further) offence. Basketball and baseball teams will be fined on a sliding scale from $15,000-$25,000 for failing to comply.
