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The ACC is rolling out a new player availability report this season, marking a shift in how the conference handles injury updates. The move comes as pressure from sports betting continues to grow, prompting leagues to introduce more transparency to protect both players and game integrity.
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ACC commissioner Jim Phillips made the announcement at the ACC Kickoff event in Charlotte, saying the decision is directly tied to protecting players in a climate increasingly influenced by sports wagering.
“This decision is directly connected to our ongoing commitment to best protect our student-athletes and our multi-faceted approach to addressing the effects of sports wagering,” Phillips said during his media address.
Starting this season, all ACC football programs will release availability updates two days before conference games, with more updates coming one day prior and two hours before kickoff. Basketball and baseball teams will follow a similar schedule, with final updates two hours ahead of game time.
Much like the NFL system, players will be categorized as available, questionable, doubtful, or out. All updates will be posted on the conference’s website, and schools that do not comply will face fines, though exact penalties have not been disclosed.
The policy puts the ACC in line with other major conferences already taking steps in this area. The Big Ten, SEC, and MAC have each introduced similar availability reports in the last two years.
The league’s new system is meant to reduce the kind of outside pressure that can come with legalized betting. According to Phillips, there have been growing concerns that bettors are targeting athletes and staff in attempts to get insider injury information.
“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,” he explained. “Safety has always been taken seriously by this league, and I applaud our schools for further enhancing and formalizing these important measures.”
Currently, seven of the 39 U.S. states with legal betting include ACC schools, making the conference a high-interest target for betting markets.
According to Phillips, coaches in the ACC did not push back against the requirement. Many schools had some form of injury report before COVID-19, but consistency faded in recent years. The NCAA has yet to create a universal injury disclosure system across leagues, prompting the ACC to act on its own.
“Every coach has to do what they have to do to get their team ready, and there’s always gamesmanship,” Phillips told ESPN. “That’s been around 100 years, and it’s going to continue. But this is the right thing to do.”
The ACC stands for the Atlantic Coast Conference, which is a collegiate athletic conference in the United States. It includes universities that compete in NCAA Division I sports, with a particular focus on football and basketball. The ACC is considered one of the “Power Five” conferences in college athletics, meaning it is one of the top-tier conferences in terms of competition, visibility, and revenue.
Some well-known ACC member schools include:
The conference includes both public and private institutions, mostly located on the East Coast and in the southeastern U.S., though recent conference realignments have added schools from other regions. The ACC is governed by a commissioner, currently Jim Phillips, and it oversees rules, scheduling, championships, and other matters related to collegiate sports for its member schools.