The SEC announced Thursday that it will require its teams to share official injury reports for football, basketball and baseball games played within the conference.
The Big Ten and MAC both will require football injury reporting in 2024, although no other FBS conferences have announced plans to have injury reports for the college football season. The ACC and Big 12, the other two Power conferences in addition to the Big Ten and SEC, told Action Network earlier this summer that they don’t plan to have football injury reporting.
Injury reporting is mandatory in the NFL, and college football conferences are beginning to follow the practice largely due to the national increase in regulated sports betting. Some college programs worry that not having injury reports leads to sports bettors seeking inside injury information from players and coaches.
“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 in a statement.
The SEC’s Injury Reporting Protocol
The SEC’s schedule for injury reporting is by far the most transparent of any college football conference. The MAC and Big Ten require injury reports only on game days, and the reports are due a couple hours before kickoff.
In the SEC, football teams will begin reporting injury news daily beginning Wednesdays of game weeks. For games with Saturday kickoffs, that means teams will share injury reports on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
Leading up to game days, SEC programs will list players as either “available,” “probable,” “questionable,” “doubtful” or “out.” On game days, SEC football teams will designate players as “available,” “game-time decision” or “out.”
Big Ten football teams were only required to say whether athletes were “questionable” or “out” last season. The minimal reporting requirements likely didn't stem the desire for sports bettors to receive inside injury information.
For basketball and baseball, injury reports will be filed the night before games with an additional update the day of games.
Schools that don’t follow the reporting protocols can be fined. The SEC says football programs could face fines “ranging from $25,000 for a first offense to $100,000 for a third and further offenses,” while basketball and baseball teams face maximum penalties between $15,000 and $25,000.
