Big 12 To Mandate Player Availability Reports For First Time

The Big 12 will release player availability reports for football and men’s and women’s basketball before all conference games, the conference announced Wednesday.

Big 12 Availability Reports Vary By Sport

Beginning this season, Big 12 football teams will be required to submit daily injury and player availability reports starting three days before each conference game.

Players will be designated as available, probable, questionable, doubtful, or out.

Men’s and women’s basketball teams will submit reports the night before conference games, listing players as either available, game-time decision, or out.

Final reports are due 90 minutes before the start of each game.

Of course, the other three Power Four conferences — ACC, Big Ten, and SEC — already issue availability reports. The Big Ten introduced the reports for football and men’s and women’s basketball in 2023.

The SEC followed suit in 2024, and the ACC began issuing the reports in July, including football, basketball, and baseball on the list of participating sports.

These policies are intended to protect student-athletes, coaches, and staff from pressure to share inside information with gamblers and to preserve the integrity of collegiate sports.

The Big 12 will release reports on the conference website.

NCAA Tournament Fields To Remain At 68 Teams In 2026

This news comes a little over a week after the NCAA announced that men’s and women’s basketball tournament fields will not be expanding beyond 68 teams this season.

“Expanding the tournament fields is no longer being contemplated for the 2026 men’s and women’s basketball championships,” Gavitt said in a statement.

“However, the committees will continue conversations on whether to recommend expanding to 72 or 76 teams in advance of the 2027 championships.”

According to ESPN’s report, NCAA president Charlie Baker said last month that the biggest obstacle for expedited tournament expansion ahead of the upcoming academic school year is logistics.

“The tournament has to start after the conference championships are over,” he said. “And right now Selection Sunday happens like two hours after the last tournament game ends and has to finish by the Tuesday before the Masters. There’s not a lot of room there. Any expansion, we’re going to have to figure out how to put it in and then logistically how to make it work.”

Baker noted in the past that adding teams could make the tournament more interesting, and he said the NCAA already has had “good conversations” with TV partners CBS and Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD).

The NCAA’s current deal with CBS and WBD runs through 2032 and pays $1 billion annually, but the networks will not have to increase that payout for a larger field.