Mark Stoops (SEC Photo)
At the spring Southeastern Conference meetings, Kentucky coach Mark Stoops said he would be “on board” if the SEC required teams to reveal injury reports before games according to Action Network‘s Brett McMurphy.
“I’m pretty forthcoming. If someone’s out, I’ll say they’re out,” Stoops told McMurphy. “We have so many other issues now. That’s a mouse turd there.”
Well that mouse turd is getting bigger because the SEC announced Thursday that schools will be required to provide public reports on the availability of student-athletes to participate in each conference game in the sports of football, men’s and women’s basketball and baseball beginning with this football season.
“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,” said SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey.
Translation: With sports gambling so rampant, that reduces the risk of insider information impacting betting lines and gives everyone access to the same injury information.
Coaches will comply but they won’t like it. Stoops may think he’s forthcoming on injuries, but he seldom provides a lot detail and often fails to mention players by name when they are injured. That has to change now.
Now SEC schools will be required to submit availability reports three days prior to each conference football game (beginning on Wednesday in advance of a Saturday football game) with daily updates leading to a final report 90 minutes prior to game time.
In the basketball and baseball, reports will be filed the night before each SEC contest with an update on game day.
Athletes will be designated as “available, probable, questionable, doubtful, or out” for the upcoming game. On game day, athletes will be designated as “available, game time decision or out” for the upcoming game on reports posted on the SEC’s website at SECsports.com/FBreports.
Will all coaches be honest when listing “game time decision or out” each week? We’ll see.
Failure to provide accurate and timely availability reports could result in penalties ranging from $25,000 for a first offense to $100,000 for a third and further offenses in football, and a maximum of $15,000 to $25,000 in men’s and women’s basketball and baseball.
So while this all sounds good, let’s wait and see how many game-time decisions over the course of a season play and how many never see the field.
One Response
I have mixed emotions about this. It seems to benefit those engaged in the betting side of sports. I appreciate how important this type of information is for such folks.
However, I think this removes one element of the game that keeps opponents in a mode of guessing, which if played well, can give a team an edge at game time. I always enjoyed watching those little mind games play out. I suppose that is gone now.
Finally, I generally oppose rule-making without an important reason to protect the players or to protect the integrity of the game. I don’t see how this rule has such a justification. Therefore, in my opinion, the mystery for opponents trying to understand its next opponent’s strengths and weaknesses was more important than protecting the sports betting industry.