Utah’s playing games with the Big 12’s availability rules, and it’s starting to wear thin with just about everyone paying attention.
This weekend, Brett McMurphy of On3 called out the Utes for what it is: disingenuous, manipulative, and ridiculous. Those aren’t words he’s tossing around lightly. They’re aimed directly at a program that’s made a habit of ducking around the conference’s new injury reporting policy. And the latest stunt involving quarterback Devon Dampier only added fuel to the fire.
Let’s rewind. The Big 12, like every FBS conference this year, requires schools to submit availability reports throughout game week. On Wednesday, Dampier was listed as questionable. By Friday, he was upgraded to probable. Then, 90 minutes before kickoff against Colorado, he was removed from the report entirely. If you’re thinking that means he was good to go, you’d be wrong. He didn’t start, he didn’t play, and according to Kyle Whittingham, after the game, he was only available as an emergency option.
So why remove him? That’s the question everyone keeps asking. And so far, no one from Utah has answered it. Whittingham brushed it off postgame, saying there’s no quarterback controversy and Dampier is still QB1. But that’s not the issue. The issue is transparency and the lack of it.
This isn’t the first time, either. Back in September, when Utah played Texas Tech, Dampier wasn’t listed on any of the four reports that week. He started that game but later admitted he hadn’t practiced at all because of, you guessed it, the same ankle injury.
You can’t have it both ways. Either these reports matter, or they don’t. If Utah’s going to keep skirting the system, then what’s the point of the policy in the first place?
Right now, the Big 12 has stayed quiet. No warnings, no public reprimands, nothing. And Utah keeps doing what it wants.
At some point, the conference has to decide if it’s going to enforce its own rules. Because if this is how things go moving forward, then availability reports are just PR pieces and everyone knows it.
