SEC to Discuss Rule Change Requiring CFB Teams to Report Injuries, Commissioner Says

Looking to potentially take a page out of the NFL rulebook, the SEC is considering a rule change that would mandate player availability reports.

Speaking to reporters on Monday prior to the annual SEC meetings, commissioner Greg Sankey said one of the topics that will be discussed this week is the potential implementation of player availability reports during the week of games for things like injuries.

Sankey did note he doesn't expect the league to make a decision on the possible change this week.

The Big Ten tried in 2018 to get the NCAA to consider a weekly injury report in response to the United States Supreme Court's decision in the Murphy v. NCAA case that allowed individual states to legalize sports gambling.

Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith explained the rationale for the reporting at the time:

"In football, we're going to kill this [idea of] gamesmanship around injuries. ... We don't know if we want to report as many days as the NFL, but clearly on Mondays if somebody is injured from Saturday and you know they're not going to play the following Saturday because they broke their leg, why not just say that?"

CBS Sports' Dennis Dodd noted the NCAA oversight committee tabled consideration of the Big Ten's request, with coaches divided on the idea. Among the reasons cited for the division were "privacy laws" regarding medical issues and some who view it as "nothing more than a courtesy to the media and public."

The NCAA ultimately declined to implement the policy, with the board of governors saying in 2019 it was not viable.

The Big Ten did start mandating its members to provide gameday injury reports to the conference office no later than two hours prior to kickoff beginning with the 2023 season. It remains the only Power Five conference to actively distribute such reports.

Given the proliferation of sports gambling across the country in the years since the Murphy v. NCAA ruling, to say nothing of how much money gets wagered annually on college games in all sports, conferences adopting some sort of availability report doesn't seem like it should be a huge deal.

The NFL has required teams to submit injury reports dating back to 1947 because a player unexpectedly missed a game during the 1946 season that wound up having a significant impact on the betting markets.