Player availability reports are coming for the Big 12 Conference – Deseret News

The will-he or won’t-he-play era of Big 12 football — and men’s and women’s basketball — is over.

The Big 12 Conference announced Wednesday that it will publicly provide player availability reports for all conference games in football, men’s basketball and women’s basketball. The decision was approved by all member institutions and the policy will include updates in the days leading up to each game, as well as a final report 90 minutes prior to kickoff or tipoff.

On3 Sports’ Brett McMurphy first reported.

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The reports will be similar to the NFL’s injury reports and will designate football players as either “available, probable, questionable, doubtful or out.” In basketball, players will be designated as “available, game-time decision or out.”

The Big 12 will require that football teams specifically provide daily availability reports beginning three days before game day.

The Big 12 becomes the last of the Power Four conferences to make the change, following in the footsteps of the ACC, the Big Ten and the SEC. The Big Ten first started player availability reports in 2023, with the SEC following suit last year. The ACC announced earlier this year that it would offer player availability reports for the first time in 2025.

A lack of transparency regarding player availability has long been a talking point in Utah, especially at the University of Utah. Under head coach Kyle Whittingham, the Utes have had a longstanding policy of not making injuries known to the public, except for those of the season-ending variety.

That policy led to a great deal of angst among the Utah fanbase — even nationally — during the 2023 season when then-Utah quarterback Cam Rising’s availability was in question for weeks.

At the time, Whittingham told the Deseret News that he expected mandatory injury reports would eventually be a thing, but until they were made mandatory he would not be providing injury updates.

“I think that’s on the way,” Whittingham said. “And when and if that happens, we’ll be happy to oblige. Until it’s mandatory, why would you take it? It just doesn’t make any sense. You got to do everything you can do to get competitive advantages and giving an injury report that doesn’t have to be given, why would you tell your opponent that?”

Going forward, in Big 12 competition at least, any competitive advantage that was gained by a lack of injury transparency is no more, though — beginning two weeks from today.