Mandatory availability reports for big-3 sports announced by SEC

The Southeastern Conference will require football, men’s and women’s basketball and baseball to provide availability reports before each competition, starting with the 2024 college football season. The announcement came from the league office on Thursday.

“This availability reporting policy is intended to reduce pressure from outside entities seeking participation information and represents a commitment of our 16 institutions to provide enhanced transparency to support efforts to protect our student-athletes and the integrity of competition,” SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said in the conference’s announcement.

Programs will provide the conference with their respective availability reports which will be displayed each week on the SEC’s official website. Football teams will be required to provide reports three days before the game and then again 90 minutes before kickoff.

For basketball and baseball, reports must be filed the night before a game.

Teams who fail to report availabilities on time are subject to a fine — $25,000 for the first infraction up to $100,000 for a third. The maximum fine for basketball and baseball ranges between $15,000 and $25,000.

The SEC now joins the Big Ten as the only two power conferences with compulsory availability reports before games.

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