SEC to give player availability reports this season

SEC schools will provide public reports on player availability for conference games in football, men’s and women’s basketball and baseball starting this season, the league announced Thursday.

SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said the new policy is designed to curtail individuals who might try to seek information on injuries and suspensions from student-athletes for gambling purposes.

“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,” Sankey said in a statement.

Under the new policy, SEC schools will be required to provide availability reports three days before each conference football game and then daily updates, including a final one 90 minutes prior to kickoff.

In basketball and baseball, availability reports will be filed with the SEC office the night before contests with an additional update on game day.

Under the terms of the policy, student-athletes will be deemed “available,” “probable,” “questionable,” “doubtful” or “out” in reports prior to game days. On the final report, players will be designated as “available,” “game-time decision” or “out” to provide additional clarity.

No specifics can be given as to why student-athletes would be listed on the report, be it injury or otherwise.

If schools fail to abide by the new rules, they’ll face potential penalties ranging from $25,000 for a first offense to $100,000 for a third and further instances. There are maximum penalties of $15,000 to $25,000 in the other sports that are subject to the rules.

The Big Ten and MAC are the only other conferences who have adopted leaguewide availability reports. Those reports have two categories for players: questionable or out.

Georgia coach Kirby Smart said earlier this week that Ron Courson, the program’s executive associate athletics director for sports medicine, would handle the Bulldogs’ availability reports.

“I just want to say, ‘Can the guy play or not?'” Smart said. “And if it’s a game-time decision and he goes out there and [it] works out that he can’t, then he can’t. We’ve had countless numbers of guys that have gone out before the game to work out to find out if they can play or not. We’ll abide by the rules they give us. It’s the same as the NFL’s. They’ve done it for years.”

Smart said he supported the new SEC policy.

“If it keeps the pressure off of our kids from people reaching out to them, trying to get information from betting sites and trying to gain information, there is no gain if you’ve got accurate information,” Smart said. “So, it protects our kids. I’m for it.”

Football availability reports will be published on the SECsports.com website.