Player availability reports have long been ingrained in professional sports and have recently become the expectation in college sports, including on the hardwood, where they're currently required in all five major conferences.
They're coming to the NCAA tournament for the first time this year, and the NCAA announced Wednesday that schools who don't file them will be fined.
"Player availability reports are intended in part to reduce betting-related pressure, solicitations and harassment student-athletes and other team personnel receive from bettors connected to playing status," according to the NCAA's release.
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NCAA tournament teams will be mandated to submit initial reports by 9 p.m. local time the night before their games. Then within two hours of tip-off, all updates to those reports have to been in.
Players who have more than a 75% chance of playing are to be considered "available," whereas those who have up to a 75% chance of playing are to be labeled as "questionable." If a player will not play, they should be listed as "out," according to the NCAA.
Available players won't be listed with a designation.
For schools that don't adhere to that policy, they'll be fined up to $10,000 as first-time offenders. A second offense will result in them dealing with an institution penalty up to $25,000.
Any third offenses will lead to the school at fault being hit with a fine as costly as $30,000. In that instance, its head coach will be fined as much as $10,000 as well, per the NCAA. Those same punishments will be administered for successive offenses thereafter.
Any penalties will be assessed following the completion of the men's and women's NCAA tournaments.
This is a trial run for the NCAA, in terms of imposing such a policy for its championships. In its release, the NCAA described the reporting system as a "pilot program" that will be evaluated but, in the meantime, won't be used for other NCAA championships this academic year.
All player availability reports will be public and accessible on the NCAA's website.
