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The Southeastern Conference, one of the most popular leagues for college football betting, may soon adopt a measure that would be popular with bettors and possibly massive for sports integrity: mandatory injury reports.
CBS Sports first reported the potential move. If adopted, the measure would follow the lead of the Big Ten, which mandated gameday availability reports beginning last season. The SEC would be the first Power Five team to follow.
Big Ten athletic directors advocated for a national reporting system in 2018 after the repeal of the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act allowed states besides Nevada to legalize sports betting. The NCAA in 2019 said such a system would be untenable, however.
Published Injuries as a Firewall to Students
SEC commissioner Greg Sankey acknowledged these reports were a possibility during the conference’s spring meetings. A final decision could be made in two weeks when the league’s athletic directors meet. Florida and LSU began releasing weekly injury reports last year, but gameday reports would be exponentially more valuable to bettors.
Given the focus on mitigating the harm gambling can cause student-athletes, and sports betting scandals at Iowa and Iowa State in 2021, the measure would seemingly be popular. Unlike professional athletes, college players and others with insider information about game-impactful injuries are harder potential targets to protect from unscrupulous bettors.
Martin Lycka, the vice president for American Regulatory Affairs and Responsible Gambling at Entain, hopes the SEC follows the Big Ten. He tells Gaming Today:
“This policy will help across the board … I should hope that other conferences will follow suit.”
Former Nebraska Cornhusker coach Tom Osborne last recounted his experience with those seeking insider information during his 25 years on the sidelines.
How Other Sports Leagues Report Injuries
Major League Baseball, the National Basketball Association, National Hockey League, and National Football League all catalog injury updates both through their native sites and via distribution to media outlets. That said, there can be holes. NHL teams can voluntarily disclose precise injuries but are mandated only to issue updates on “upper body” or “lower body” maladies.
The following was released by the NBA: pic.twitter.com/WZS6LUV8Fr
— NBA Communications (@NBAPR) April 19, 2024
The NBA’s injury reporting policy has often been called into question. The NBA fined the 76ers $100,000 for their elusive reporting of Joel Embiid’s return from injury in April. Banned former Raptor Jontay Porter used injuries as an excuse while tanking prop bets for co-conspirators in a gambling fraud scheme this season.
