SANDESTIN, Fla. — Most everything debated at the 2024 SEC Spring Meetings surrounds the future of college athletics.
As commissioner Greg Sankey has repeated throughout the week, “we’re having debates, not decisions.”
From education on the House v. NCAA settlement, to potential collective bargaining and looming roster caps, Presidents, ADs and coaches alike discussed — with little clarity and even fewer answers — on what might happen in 2025 and beyond.
But one item ledger that could take place as soon as the 2024 season seems to have gained some traction within the conference’s football coaches: Availability reports.
Or for the gambling aficionados: Injury reports.
While Sankey indicated Monday that the plan was to simply hold “conversations” this week about implementing “availability reports” leading up to games in football, men’s and women’s basketball, and men’s and women’s baseball and softball, the rumblings in the halls of the Hilton Hotel were that there’s growing momentum for a mandatory release of a single availability report during game weeks for football.
Could it be instituted for this fall?
“We’ll decide when we decide,” Sankey said Wednesday.
Still, in a week with such few answers, it was clear most SEC coaches were on board with providing such reports.
Why availability reports are needed for the SEC
In an era where gambling is so prevalent — be it specifically with media rights partnerships with ESPN — more transparency is much-needed, especially for a conference where so many coaches predominately close practices and treat injuries like state secrets.
“When you start to see the number of dollars being bet on legalized sports gambling around college sports, not just football, but men’s and women’s basketball, volleyball and baseball and softball, all those catch your attention,” Sankey said Monday.
“We have to be thoughtful about how information is managed.”
Last season, the Big Ten required their schools to make publicly available injury reports at least two hours prior to kickoff. The NFL model is even more transparent, requiring teams to list players on Friday of game week as either questionable, doubtful or out.
What exact model the SEC might land on remains to be seen, but several coaches have spoken out in favor of replicating something similar to what the NFL does.
“The NFL has already figured a lot of this stuff out, so we don’t have to reinvent the wheel,” Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian said.
“If someone isn’t truthful on their player availability report, fine them.”
Georgia head coach Kirby Smart wants to “know what the stipulations are, the timetables,” while acknowledging, “the NFL model obviously works for them.
“I just don’t know what all this entails for us.”
Brian Kelly declined to speak at this week’s meetings, but LSU has been the league’s most open program regarding injuries in recent years, publicly designating players with either upper or lower-body injuries last season and providing a report where guys were listed as probable, questionable, doubtful or out. Kentucky has also been among the most forthcoming programs regarding player availability, with head coach Mark Stoops saying Wednesday, “If someone’s out, I”ll say they’re out. I’m on board. We have so many other big issues now. That’s a mouse turd there.”
Who can disagree with that statement?
While the availability reports are tied to potential gambling implications, there’s also a trickle-down effect to the biggest debate this week in Destin over future roster cap limits.
Although Texas A&M’s Mike Elko and others expressed concern that schools will still “find a way to escape the system,” Sarkisian pushed back on that narrative, while Arkansas’ Sam Pittman said the reports are ultimately a great value to fans.
“I don’t think it’s going to be a perfect science,” Pittman said.
“You’re going to have players that are going to be questionable on your roster that go out to pregame warmups to find out if they’re going to be able to play.”
“I believe it’s going to help the public understand who is available and who isn’t available.”
“If I try to game the system and I don’t report a guy, fine us,” added Sarkisian. “We all like the money that we make. That’s a really simple way to get us to adhere to the rules.”
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