Nebraska football: Big Ten wants NFL-like injury reporting system in the NCAA
The Big Ten’s rules proposal would fundamentally change the way the Nebraska football team and others would handle injuries.
There have been a number of rules changes and proposed rule changes that will affect the Nebraska football team this year. One more coming from the Big Ten would change how schools report their players’ injuries.
The conference is looking to remove the guessing game that comes with injuries. The Big Ten is putting forward a pitch that would have the NCAA handling injury reporting much in the same way as the NFL.
This move, as Kevin McGuire of NBCSports points out, appears to be motivated by the recent court ruling that will allow sports betting in the United States. That is, after all, the main reason the NFL handles its injuries the way it does.
Of course, the pro football league did their injuries that way because of Vegas. Now that the country can allow gambling, the B1G wants to be a part of it.
We don’t know if we want to report as many days as the NFL,” Ohio State AD Gene Smith said in regards to the proposed rule change according to CBSSports‘ Dennis Dodd. “[But] clearly on Mondays if somebody is injured from Saturday and you know they’re not going to play the following Saturday because they broke their leg, why not just say that?”
The questions that are sure to arise from this proposal are just how close to the NFL they want the injury list to be. The NFL updates every single day. They use the team’s webpages to do it.
Would the NCAA do the same thing? The other big question is just how this proposal makes it to the next step.
Coaches in college football don’t like to let their opponents know what kind of injuries their team is facing. Former Nebraska football head coach Bo Pelini was someone who always messed with injury reports. Would Scott Frost and the rest of his contemporaries go along with this?
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The rule change appears to have a long way to go. Fans and yes, gamblers would certainly have an easier time if this rule does become the law of the land.