Big 12 Goes Full NFL With Injury Reports

Transparency, integrity, and making sure your bookie doesn’t have to text the backup long snapper’s cousin for intel.

Well, well, well — the Big 12 has finally joined the NFL cosplay club. Starting this season, they’re going to release official player availability reports for every conference football game. Daily updates three days before kickoff, then a final “yes, no, or maybe” 90 minutes before game time.

They’ll even have the classic designations: available, probable, questionable, doubtful, or out. Translation:

• Available – Will play.
• Probable – Will play unless they literally trip over the band.
• Questionable – Could go either way, so let’s keep Michigan’s secondary guessing.
• Doubtful – Might suit up for warmups to confuse the other team, then disappear.
• Out – Has been out since Tuesday but we’re only telling you now.

This isn’t just football, either — men’s and women’s basketball get their own reports too. Because nothing says “integrity of competition” like letting Vegas know your point guard tweaked an ankle in shootaround.

Why They’re Doing It

The official line: “Protecting student-athletes and the integrity of competition.”
The actual translation: “Gambling is so woven into the sport now that we might as well make it public instead of forcing boosters to DM the trainer’s wife.”

The SEC started doing this last year, the Big Ten in 2023, and now the ACC’s on board too. By midseason, every Power conference will have its own page on the conference website that looks like a mash-up of a fantasy football app and your doctor’s patient portal.

Unc’s Angle

You can call this “transparency.” I call it the “stop pestering the punter’s neighbor for tips” initiative.

Here’s the thing: Every coach will swear this is about fairness and stopping insider betting. And sure, maybe it is. But you’re telling me Mike Gundy’s about to hand over the exact status of his starting QB with zero gamesmanship? Uh-huh. Expect some “probable” tags that are really just there to make BYU burn practice reps on a backup who hasn’t thrown a pass since the spring game.

And I’ll give it two weeks before we see our first “upper body injury” designation — the all-time vague classic. Could be a sprained wrist, could be the flu, could be that the player’s car broke down on the way to practice.

Final Whistle

The Big 12 is officially in the injury-report business, which means gamblers get cleaner info, coaches get fewer back-channel texts, and the rest of us get to argue online about whether “questionable” really means 50/50 or “we already know but we’re not telling you.”

Just remember — the next time your team’s best receiver is suddenly ruled “out” 90 minutes before kickoff, it wasn’t the opponent that ruined your Saturday. It was the Big 12’s shiny new honesty policy.