Jim Phillips announces the ACC will mandate player availability reports in football, basketball starting in 2025

Changes are coming to how coaches in the ACC are able to handle injuries moving forward. Commissioner Jim Phillips announced at the 2025 ACC Football Kickoff that the conference is going to mandate player availability reports in football, basketball, and baseball now.

This decision comes one season after the SEC began its own player availability reports. The model that the ACC is going to use is a similar one, which requires coaches to announce initial availability reports two days before football games, and add subsequent updates ahead of the game.

“In the sports of football, men’s and women’s basketball, as well as baseball,” Jim Phillips said. “The ACC will implement a player availability reporting policy for each conference game. In football, an institution will submit an availability report two days before each league game with updates one day before and on gameday. All submitted reports will be publicly available on TheACC.com.”

The ACC formerly did have an availability report system. From 2008 to 2017, the conference’s football coaches had a gentleman’s agreement to release weekly injury reports. However, that ended with the anticipation that there would be a national standard set, which never came.

Instead of waiting longer for a national standard, the ACC felt it was time to implement its own standard. That, as Jim Phillips explained, is directly related to the rise of sports gambling. The hope is that more publicly available information will help those involved on teams.

“This decision is directly connected to our ongoing commitment to best protect our student-athletes,” Phillips said. “And our multi-faceted approach to addressing the effects of sports wagering. In this case, it would alleviate pressure from entities or individuals who are involved in sports wagering that attempt to obtain inside information about availability from players, coaches, and other staff. Safety has always been taken seriously by this league, and I applaud our schools for further enhancing and formalizing these important measures.”

Sports gambling has recently seen a rise in prominence. That was when the Supreme Court ruled on Murphy v. NCAA that the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992 violated the anticommandeering principle by a 7–2 vote. That paved the way for states to legalize sports betting, and now 38 states do with 30 allowing for bets placed on a mobile phone.

Along with the rise in sports gambling, there’s been a rise in harassment of athletes over bets. In the ACC, for instance, Duke basketball star Cooper Flagg shared that he receives angry DMs from fans over it. He’s not alone, and it can take its toll on college athletes. However, with March Madness betting alone topping $3 billion, it’s not going away anytime soon.