The Big Ten Conference announced Friday it has adopted a new policy regarding game-day player availability reports.
As reported by Kevin McGuire of Nittany Lions Wire, each Big Ten institution will be required to submit a game-day availability report before each football game this season. Those mandated reports must be submitted to the conference office no later than two hours before the scheduled kickoff, and they will then be shared publicly through the Big Ten media accounts on the conference website and on social media.
Any schools not following this new procedure will be subject to disciplinary action by the Big Ten according to the conference’s sportsmanship policy, McGuire reported.
According to McGuire, the Big Ten has aligned with U.S. Integrity to implement this new policy. U.S. Integrity will assist in monitoring the process and assist with resources to help prevent players and coaches around the league from engaging in prohibited sports wagering. This is notable in light of recent headlines surrounding the Iowa and Iowa State football programs.
The player availability reports are a key resource for those gambling on sports such as football, and now they will have more reliable information to use for games involving Big Ten teams.
"[Penn State's James] Franklin has typically been a coach that has been reluctant to share too many details about players and their availability status, more to prevent talking about injuries," McGuire wrote. "The mandatory release of player availability reports will force Franklin to share at least a small fraction of information about the status of his roster. Penn State will not have to share information regarding the extend of any injuries, as it appears the reports will simply have to tell if a player is available or not.
"But is this a step toward mandatory injury reports? Hopefully not, but if you give a mouse a cookie, he’s going to want a glass of milk."
