It looks like pre-game injury reports might be a thing in the NCAA. At present, college teams aren't required to disclose a list of their hurt players before games. That could all change, as SEC commissioner Greg Sankey recently disclosed that there would be discussions in the spring meetings about the implementation of “availability reports” in his conference. One person who has no problem with it is Kentucky football coach Mark Stoops.
“I'm pretty forthcoming. If someone's out, I'll say they're out,” Stoops said, per Action Network's Brett McMurphy. “I’m on board. We have so many other big issues now. That's a mouse turd there.”
That's one head coach on board. Stoops' comments would arguably be good news to Sankey, who revealed that the discourse on availability reporting was something that his staff have been working on since last summer.
“We are going to have a discussion about student-athlete availability reporting,” Sankey said, per Sports Illustrated's James Parks. “…Members of our staff have been working on this project, really since last summer. I referenced some considerations that we would have.”
Nevertheless, Sankey made it clear that they won't be in a rush to make a final decision on the matter.
“We don’t want to just rush into something,” he added, per On3's Adam Luckett. “It’s not injury reporting. It’s a very different circumstance given some of the privacy issues we have.”
The SEC could benefit from injury reports in a certain way…
If ever Sankey and the conference decide to push through, the SEC could benefit in a way that involves legal gambling. With the rise of sports betting in recent times, disclosing injuries before games could argubaly make betting predictions more accurate. In turn, more viewers who are willing to shell out money — ranging from a few bucks to their entire life savings — would be drawn in, giving college football much better ratings overall.
“…When you start to see the numbers of dollars being bet on legalized sports gambling around college sports, not just football, but men’s and women’s basketball, volleyball, baseball, all of those catch your attention,” Sankey added.
Georgia football coach Kirby Smart also touched on this when asked about the injury reports.
“Again, all I know is we’re going to talk about it,” Smart said, pertaining to the availability reports. “…If it helps with gambling, then I’m all for it. If it’s geared for getting knowledge out there that people are trying to get from our student-athletes and it protects them, I’m certainly for that.” (per UGA Sports' Anthony Dasher)
Besides this, the House v. NCAA lawsuit, the arrival of newcomers Texas and Oklahoma, and several other topics are also expected to be brought up in the spring meetings. All in all, it's gonna be a busy few days for everyone involved.
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