The move is a measure to create transparency with player injuries throughout the season.
The Mid-American Conference has announced the adoption of student-athlete availability reports for football games, effective the 2024-25 academic season.
The move, announced Thursday morning, was adapted by the MAC Council of Directors of Athletics in July.
The use of student-athlete availability reports— more commonly referred to as gameday reports or injury reports— was first adopted in college athletics by the Big Ten Conference prior to the 2023 season.
The Big Ten had previously pushed the NCAA to adopt a national injury report standard back in 2018, but the national body opted to let the conferences decide their own injury report policies.
The MAC will be the second Football Bowl Division conference (and the first “Group” conference) to adopt the practice as mandatory, with the SEC also considering the policy for future seasons— though some individual schools within the SEC maintain the practice.
Teams will be required to submit their reports up to three hours before the start of a contest, with disciplinary actions taken if a school does not submit said information.
All the injury reports will be available to the public, with the MAC publishing the reports both on their home page and via social media posts. On gamedays, injury information will be refreshed when available at getsomemaction.com/fbreports.
The MAC will note any potential changes and adjust their policies as necessary throughout the season.
The MAC football season kicks off on Thursday, August 29th, with four games kicking off concurrently at 7 p.m. Eastern time. Under the new policy, we would have the conference’s first injury reports on Thursday at 4 p.m. Eastern time.