If the wake of a betting scandal that has erupted through the NBA, the NCAA has mandated injury reports for the 2026 Division I men’s and women’s basketball tournaments to tackle betting integrity issues.
The NCAA announced earlier this week that teams will now be required to submit injury reports that night before games, and again two hours before tipoff. Players will be presumed to be available for the game unless they are designated “questionable” or “out.”
The reports are mandatory for all tournament games and will be made available to the public. Any teams that fail to submit an injury report or that are found to have submitted inaccurate information in a report could face penalties set by the NCAA basketball committees.
NCAA officials said the new reports are intended to protect players from harassment from sports bettors looking for information, and to preserve game integrity while matching injury transparency standards of professional leagues.
It was reported that HD Intelligence which already oversees similar reports for several conferences will oversee the tournament reporting.
The new standards follow the betting scandal that was uncovered by the FBI earlier this month. Part of that scandal involved the sharing of inside information around players health and status. That leaked information was used to make large wagers on player prop bets.
Some states have already outlawed prop bets on some college sports, and NCAA advocates and staff have lobbied all states to prohibit college sports player prop bets as they can cause pressure and dangerous incentives on student-athletes.
