SEC begins availability reports for football, basketball, baseball

SEC schools will provide public reports on player availability for conference games in football, men’s and women’s basketball and baseball beginning this season, the league announced Thursday.

SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey said the new policy is designed to cut down on individuals who may seek information about injuries and suspensions from student-athletes for gambling purposes.

“This availability reporting policy is intended to reduce the pressure on outside agencies to seek participation information and represents a commitment by our 16 institutions to provide increased transparency to support our efforts to protect the integrity of our student-athletes and competition,” Sankey said in a statement.

Under the new policy, SEC schools must provide availability reports three days before each conference football game and then daily updates, including a final one 90 minutes before kickoff.

In basketball and baseball, availability reports will be filed with the SEC office the night before the contest, with additional updates on game day.

Under the terms of the policy, student-athletes will be deemed “available,” “probable,” “questionable,” “questionable” or “out” on the pre-game day report. In the final report, players will be designated as “Available,” “Game-Time Decision” or “Out” to provide additional clarity.

No specific information can be provided as to why student-athletes will be listed on the report, be it injury or otherwise.

If schools fail to comply with the new rules, they face potential fines ranging from $25,000 for the first offense to $100,000 for the third and subsequent incidents. The rules have maximum fines of $15,000 to $25,000 in other sports.

The Big Ten and the MAC are the only other conferences that have adopted the leaguewide availability report. There are two categories for players in this report: Doubtful or Out.

Georgia coach Kirby Smart said earlier this week that Ron Courson, the program’s executive associate athletics director for sports medicine, will handle the Bulldogs’ availability reports.

“I just want to say, ‘Can the guy play?'” Smart said. “And if it’s a game-time decision and he goes out there and (it) works out that he can’t, then he can’t. We have countless guys that go out to practice before the game to see if they can play. Because they have been following the rules they give us for years.

Smart said he supported the new SEC policy.

“If it takes the pressure off our kids from reaching out to them, trying to get information from betting sites and trying to get information, there’s no point if you’re getting the right information,” Smart said. “So, it protects our kids. I’m all for it.”

Football availability reports will be published on the SECsports.com website.