- The ACC is now requiring that conference teams release pregame injury reports at least 48 hours before a game.
- ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips initiative here is to prevent inside information for sports betting.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. – ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips announced a major step for the game of college football on Tuesday that teams within the conference will now be required to provide pregame injury reports at least 48 hours before a conference game.
It’s being advertised by the conference as an NFL-style report that will initially come out at least two days before kick off and continue to be updated until gametime. Players on the report will be tagged as either “available,” “questionable,” “doubtful,” or “out.”
What Is The Goal
From the jump, commissioner Phillips made it clear that this move is a push against insider information within the sports betting industry, especially in the player prop realm. Phillips had this to say about the rule change at the ACC Media Kick-off when asked about how receptive coaches were and if the structure is set in stone:
“Coaches are hard to change, but when we told them that we were doing it, no one said anything on the call—I understand, and every coach has to do what they have to do in order to get their team ready, and there's always gamesmanship, always—There's stresses on our student-athletes from individuals that are trying to garner information, and sometimes it's pretty innocent because they just want to know, they're a big fan, but other times it really does trickle and lead yourself to the gambling and sports wagering kind of path. We haven't come up with a fine policy yet—But we'd also like to think that people are going to do what they're asked to do, and we hope that it wouldn't come down to that. Schools will have to identify who that person is going to be. For football, it will be two days before, the day before, and then two hours before kick. It's the right thing. It's, again, the modernization of our conference, the modernization of college sports, and the expectations we should have to protect our student-athletes.”
How This Impacts Sports Betting
As far as the impacts that this will have on college football prop betting sites, there are several. First off, on the gamelines, bettors could see line’s shift more and more throughout the week leading up to a game.
On the player prop side of things, those odds may not get released until later on in the week and much closer to kick off than usual. College football sportsbooks could wait until those initial injury reports come out to offer player props and adjust from there.
Other Conferences Potentially Follow
This could very well be a domino effect with other conferences to follow suit and require their teams to release injury reports as well. While it may not happen this season, other conferences are certainly keeping tabs on the ACC and how successful or unsuccessful this rule change is.
While the ACC hasn’t had a public betting scandal, the Big 12, Big 10, and SEC have each had public outbreaks of betting within their schools. Iowa (Big 10) and Iowa State (Big 12) saw several student athletes suspended for betting. In the SEC, former LSU wide receiver Kayshon Boutte was caught betting on his own player props during his time in Baton Rouge.
