Sam Pittman on having injury reports in college football: 'I think that's gonna be fine'

Arkansas Razorbacks head coach Sam Pittman knows that college sports are undergoing a long series of changes. Those can be difficult to deal with, but it also doesn’t mean that you don’t have to deal with them.

One change that looks like it may be coming to college football is the addition of injury reports ahead of games. That’s something that Pittman has no issues with, understanding that it will help the public know what to expect.

“I think that’s gonna be fine,” Sam Pittman said. “I believe it’ll help the public understand who’s gonna be available and who’s not. I don’t think it’s gonna be a perfect science because you’re going to have players and they’ll just be questionable on your roster that go out in pregame to find out if they’re going to be able to play.”

The NFL has had injury reports for years. Oftentimes teams are still vague on them, listing players as questionable or doubtful. However, it does add transparency for everyone involved.

“But I think it’s going to be a value to the people coming to the game,” Pittman said.

Sam Pittman isn’t the only SEC coach who has publicly shared that he doesn’t mind this particular change coming to the sport. Mark Stoops of Kentucky has also shared that he has no problem with injury reports in college football.

If that were to happen, it would be a change from the current system where coaches could share injury updates if they wanted to, but could also avoid answering. In particular, they could avoid answering if there was something they were trying to hide.

SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey has even openly said that the conference is going to have discussions on the issue.

“We are going to have a discussion about student-athlete availability reporting,” Sankey said. “Members of our staff have been working on this project, really since last summer. I referenced some considerations that we would have. That doesn’t mean there’s going to be a decision. In fact, you should not expect a decision. But you should expect a discussion.”

Sam Pittman on the number of SEC conference games

The length of the SEC conference schedule has often been debated between eight or nine games. Currently, it sits at eight games, which Sam Pittman says isn’t a broken system.

“I don’t have a feeling either way,” Pittman said. “I just know that it’s not broke at eight. We’re doing well. We’re winning national championships. To me, it doesn’t make a lot of sense — just to me, personally — to go to nine when eight’s working for us.”