SEC News: Further clarity for injuries ahead of games could be coming soon

SEC News: Sankey, league officials "hold[ing] conversations" on implementing injury reports

One of the most opaque pieces of playing big time college football, especially against certain coaches in the SEC, is pregame injury reporting. There is no official policy at the moment when it comes to reporting injuries, which can lead to frustration at times among some fanbases.

When Evan Stewart, pre-transfer, was sitting games out ahead of the end of the previous season, fans were left guessing as to his availability heading into the Mississippi State and LSU games. Likewise, Texas A&M football fans had no idea until right before kickoff (though they may have had educated guesses) that Max Johnson would be unavailable against MSU.

This is far different than the NFL, for example, which has stringent rules about injury reporting, and failure to disclose certain information can lead to fines being levied. As major college football moves increasingly towards a model that resembles professional sports, of course, more and more of these things seem to be changing to reflect the existing, latter models.

Injury reporting could be the latest change. In the SEC spring meetings in Destin, Florida, commissioner Greg Sankey winked at the idea that injury reporting will be coming to SEC football at some point in the future.

Of course, his official quote says that we as fans should not expect a decision, but a discussion. Far too often, though, these discussions have very rapidly evolved into decisions, so I don't think it's too far-fetched to expect that this may be something that happens in the near future.

If I had to guess, the biggest driver here would be the increase in frequency when it comes to sports betting. If you have a wager on a game, then it only makes sense that you would want as much information as possible headed into that contest; the clandestine nature of some coaches when it comes to disclosing injuries has to be harmful in such an endeavor.

Whatever the case, though, I think fans will be happy with more clarity around this issue. I'm hard-pressed to think that there are teams that really gained a significant advantage by keeping mum on their injuries, so this will be a welcome change if and when it happens.