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The SEC hasn’t officially made any announcements regarding mandating injury reports during the 2024 season, but comments from Georgia head coach Kirby Smart suggest it is coming.
“What I’ve been told is conference games will have it,” Smart said Tuesday, per Seth Emerson of The Athletic. “I’m great with it, as long as we’re all doing it. I have no issue with it.”
There are no in-conference games for SEC teams during Week 1 of the college football season, so there doesn’t seem to be a rush to implement it. However, the first conference game of the campaign comes in Week 2 between Kentucky and South Carolina.
With the decision potentially looming as soon as next week, Smart said he tasked head athletic trainer Ron Courson with putting it together for his team.
In 2018, the Big Ten asked the NCAA to consider implementing a national injury reporting system. While the NCAA ultimately declined, the conference now has its own policy where teams provide an availability report two hours prior to kickoff.
That stands in contrast to the NFL’s model, which categorizes players as out, doubtful and questionable with multiple updates throughout the week leading up to a final report the day of the game.
Smart hinted that the SEC’s impending model could mirror the NFL’s.
“I think they’re going to tie fines and things to it and all that,” he said. “Everybody’s trying to make this a big deal about deception or misleading. If I don’t know if a guy can play, I’ve got to find out before the game. If he can play, then he’s going to go out there and play. But we’ve had countless amount of guys that have gone out there before a game and worked out to find out 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. And it keeps the pressure off our kids from people reaching out to them to try to get information from them for betting sites and trying to gain information. There is no gain if you’ve got accurate information. So if it protects our kids then I’m for it.”
The proliferation of sports gambling means far more people are interested in injury updates, especially for marquee games with larger audiences.
Many of the upcoming season’s marquee games will feature SEC and Big Ten teams, and they will be the only power conferences with injury reports available if the former decides to implement such a rule.
SEC commissioner Greg Sankey told reporters in May that the league was considering such reports, and it seems like just a matter of time before they become a reality.
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Publish date : 2024-08-27 13:59:00
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