MAC News: League Installs Availability Report Policy
The latest in the continuation of professionalizing college sports, even at the MAC level.
The “let’s just call it professional football already!” crowd just got a little bit louder. Beginning this season, the Mid-American Conference will implement a new policy where teams must provide a list of guys who won’t be participating in their games at least three hours before kickoff.
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The Mid-American Conference (MAC) announced today the introduction of a gameday student-athlete availability report for all football games during the 2024 season. Each MAC institution will be responsible for submitting gameday availability reports prior to every contest this season. The new policy was approved in July by the Council of Directors of Athletics.
Reports must be submitted by schools no later than three hours before scheduled kickoff times. The information will be provided to the conference office and made available on GetSomeMACtion.com/FBReports and @MACSports on X. Failure to comply with the gameday reporting policy may result in disciplinary action in accordance with the MAC Sportsmanship Policy.
The MAC, in collaboration with its member institutions, will continuously evaluate the process and accuracy of the information throughout the season, making adjustments to the protocol as necessary.
While the MAC isn’t the first college football conference to have these published on gamedays, it is the first Group of 5 league to do so.
The Big Ten was the first college conference to have mandatory gameday availability reports, which began last season, and teams had up until two hours before kickoff to have their respective availability reports submitted to the conference. Each week, Big Ten teams had certain players listed as either ‘out’ or ‘questionable’. The SEC, as of this writing, does not have a league-wide injury report system. LSU, though, began putting out its own injury reports last season. LSU reported players as probable, questionable, doubtful, or out every Monday and Thursday, and then the team would give a thumbs up or thumbs down on somebody’s availability before kickoff on gamedays.
Why the injury reports?
You guessed it: betting scandals.
Iowa and Iowa State football players were caught up in their own situations that landed both of those schools in some hot water, then there was the situation where Alabama’s baseball coach tipped his gambling buddy on a pitcher’s availability situation before he had to submit his lineup.
Since kickoff is right around the corner, let’s refresh on all of the rules changes that this sport will see in just this season alone.
Helmet communication between the coaches and one player on the field at a time is in for all of FBS football.
Sideline tablets.
Two-minute warnings in the second and fourth quarters.
For the MAC, of course, availability reports are a must.