Big Ten football teams must submit player availability reports no later than two hours before kickoff, the conference announced Friday. It’s the latest adjustment by college sports to the rise of legalized sports gambling.
The league also announced a partnership with U.S. Integrity, a leading monitoring service that also works with the SEC, Big 12 and most major pro sports leagues. (The Big 12 earlier this week announced a continued partnership with the company, but did not announce availability reports).
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“The well-being of our students, coaches, and staff, as well as the integrity of our competitions are of paramount importance,” Big Ten Commissioner Tony Petitti said in a release. “Enhanced transparency through availability reporting and partnering with U.S. Integrity strengthens our efforts to protect those who participate in our games as well as the integrity of the games themselves. I’m grateful for the collaboration of our schools, coaches, and administrators.”
The announcement also comes amid fallout of sports gambling issues at Iowa and Iowa State, where more than a dozen athletes have been charged in criminal complaints. Hawkeyes starting defensive tackle Noah Shannon also faces a one-year suspension by the NCAA, and Cyclones starting running back Jirehl Brock left the team.
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As part of the Big Ten policy, schools will submit availability reports no later than two hours before kickoff, and they will be released to the public by the league. Breach of the policy will be subject to conference discipline.
U.S. Integrity will “provide integrity monitoring, educational, and social media monitoring services to the Big Ten Conference via its proprietary dashboard. USI conducts analysis across dozens of data sets to proactively identify irregular contest-level, officiating and wagering patterns,” according to the release.
It’s not yet clear how detailed the reports will be. Some schools, like Northwestern and Illinois, have already provided injury reports in the past.
The Athletic’s instant analysis:
How necessary was this?
This is absolutely necessary and every conference should probably do this.
College sports are quickly trying to catch up to legalized sports gambling, but they’ve already been hit on multiple fronts. Alabama baseball coach Brad Bohanon was fired for his involvement in betting on a Crimson Tide baseball game, and news of the Iowa and Iowa State players came out after that. It seems highly unlikely and coincidental that only Iowa and ISU face this issue.
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In June, the NCAA released new guidelines for penalties. They are largely more lenient than in the past, but betting on your own team can still lead to a permanent loss of eligibility. (It’s also important to emphasize the difference between illegal gambling activities, such as underage betting, and NCAA rules).
In May, U.S. Integrity president Matt Holt told me that all sports leagues should have public injury reports.
“Injury reports were created to disrupt and deter misuse of insider information,” Holt said in an email. “I believe all leagues, college or pro, that have regulated wagering in them should also have regularly scheduled injury and information reporting.”
Sports betting appears to be the trigger that will force transparency from secretive football coaches, some of whom never say a word about injury or availability. Legalized sports betting is one of the most monitored services in the country, because the entire industry relies on legitimacy.
At the same time, it’s clear that education from schools and the NCAA hasn’t been enough to deter players from getting caught up in a culture that promotes it everywhere. Now the college careers of some athletes may be over. Leaders in college sports have to be more public about all of this as a deterrent. This isn’t going away.
After all, college sports are no stranger to sports betting scandals.
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(Photo: Scott W. Grau / Getty)