The Nebraska football team, as well as the Big Ten, will make it just a little bit easier for gamblers before every conference game this season.
The new plan, announced on Friday, is allegedly to make it safer for the players and to offer up transparency. However, a scheme that forces Nebraska football and every other school in the Big Ten to announce injuries no later than two hours before the game will almost certainly give gamblers a better idea of who will win.
I’d imagine that the Big Ten schools’ injury reports will be similar to what we already see in the NFL. A short list of players that are definitely not going to play. It’s unknown, but likely players who are “doubtful” must be included.
As a practical matter, the injury reports are supposed to work thusly:
For Nebraska football and Minnesota, their game kicks off at 7:30 p.m. central time on Thursday. So, both schools must release their injury reports by 5:30 p.m.
Those reports will then be posted on the Big Ten conference website and released on Twitter.
Big Ten announces the implementation of game-day availability (injury) reports. Each school must send the league a report two hours before kickoff, which will be made public on the Big Ten's website and on Twitter/X. pic.twitter.com/M1uaRJrhx5
— Ross Dellenger (@RossDellenger) August 25, 2023
Obviously, for Nebraska football, there will be some players, such as Marques Buford on the list that won’t be any surprise. Rhule announced on Friday that the defensive back will be out until at least Week 5 or 6.
Nebraska football aiding gamblers
The big question is just who might show up on the injury report that Nebraska football fans or Minnesota fans didn’t know about beforehand.
This is also where the Big Ten injury reports will divert from the NFL. Teams in the pros need to update the status of their players constantly.
Matt Rhule, PJ Fleck, and the rest of the coaches in the conference can keep things completely under wraps until game day. Then, the reports come out two hours before kickoff.
The Big Ten claims this will breed integrity and transparency. Of course, it is unclear how these lists will keep people with inside info on who’s hurt or who’s not on the Nebraska football or Minnesota Golden Gophers football teams.
Those with that kind of info will still be gambling well in advance. They’ll still have a leg up on the rest of the public.
What the Big Ten’s new policy will do is allow more people to feel as though they have info they should gamble with. It’s likely more bets will be placed this year than ever before on Nebraska football and every other Big Ten game.
The conference should at least be honest about the rather obvious side effects.