According to a report from CBS Sports, the SEC is hoping to require mandatory injury reports for the upcoming season after the Big Ten did so in the 2023 season.
Back in May, during the SEC’s annual spring meetings, SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey mentioned that this particular issue would be discussed but that a decision would not be made at that time. Now, it appears the league is pushing to make it happen before the 2024 season gets underway at the end of this month.
Per CBS Sports’ report, a mandatory injury report has not been officially approved, but the details are being finalized and it is expected that this will be a rule in place ahead of the 2024 season, with a decision coming as early as next week.
Last season, the Big Ten became the first Power Five conference to implement a mandatory gameday availability report, which was done to protect the integrity of the game regarding gambling.
This was a result of something the league had been attempting to implement since 2018 when Big Ten officials tried to get the NCAA to consider a weekly injury report in response to the Murphy v. NCAA case — which allowed individual states to legalize sports gambling.
“In football, we’re going to kill this [idea of] gamesmanship around injuries,” former Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith said at the time. “We don’t know if we want to report as many days as the NFL, but clearly on Mondays if somebody is injured from Saturday and you know they’re not going to play the following Saturday because they broke their leg, why not just say that?”
The Big Ten’s weekly report allowed two designations for injured players to be placed under, either questionable or out. It’s expected that the SEC will implement something similar if it does indeed become a practice for the league in 2024.
