Perhaps the biggest difference between the NFL and college football on a week-to-week basis comes in how the two sports handle injury reporting. But that could be set to change in short order after a report emerged on Tuesday that suggests the SEC is moving toward implementing mandatory injury reports ahead of games.
In the 2023 season, we did see the Big Ten implement mandatory injury reports ahead of games. Their mandates required all teams in the conference to submit injury reports at least two hours before each game.
According to Alex Scarborough and John Talty of CBS Sports, we could see the SEC similarly implement these mandates on schools in their conference. The two detailed that the SEC is “moving toward” making the injury reports mandatory for the 2024 season.
Scarborough and Talty added in their report that this topic has been debated by the conference for months now, particularly at the SEC’s annual spring meetings in May.
It is not a done deal just yet, according to Scarborough and Talty. But it could be officially approved in a few weeks when league athletic directors are scheduled to meet.
One big reason that both the Big Ten and seemingly now the SEC are looking to move towards these mandates is the impact that injury reports have on the integrity of the game when it comes to sports gambling. That’s in response to the Supreme Court striking down the Amateur Sports Protection Act in 2018, which has seen legalized sports gambling launched and expanded in many states.
Sports gambling continues to be on the rise in popularity, with the industry bringing in a whopping $10.92 billion in revenue in 2023. That represents a 44.5 percent year-over-year increase from 2022. So naturally, it makes sense that these major conferences would want to lean into keeping the integrity of the game as high as possible, while also giving gamblers the benefit of being able to view injury reports before games.
Only time will tell whether other Power Five conferences will follow in the footsteps of the Big Ten and the SEC. But as long as the sports gambling industry continues to grow, it is hard to imagine that this won’t shortly become a nationwide mandate.
