Kirby Smart makes his stance on weekly injury reports in the SEC crystal clear

One of the hot topics of the SEC Spring Meetings that Georgia head coach Kirby Smart was asked about was sports betting and the potential of injury reports coming to the SEC. For Smart, he had no idea about whether the topic would actually come up in any of the meetings among the decision makers and coaches during the week.

“Honestly I have no clue,” Smart said when asked if the topic would come up during his time at the SEC Spring Meetings. “If everybody’s giving an injury report, I have no problem giving an injury report. They do it in the NFL. I was in the NFL. That’s not a huge deal as long as it’s a level playing field. A lot of the issues that are created in college sports today are based on an imbalance because one state has this and another state has this.”

Smart coached in the NFL for one season in 2006 as the safeties coach for the Miami Dolphins under Nick Saban. Other than that, he has spent his entire coaching career in college football. He has been the head coach of the Bulldogs since 2016. Smart is 81-15 during that stretch with two national championships.

Injury reports are of interest to gamblers in part because they provide key and uniform information about player availability ahead of big games. When there is no standardized injury report, those bits of information about player injures become much more sacred and valuable.

Some teams do have injury reports that they release every week.

There are also many different ways that this information can leak out in gambling circles due to the vast number of people surrounding a college football team.

For Smart, the crux of the idea relates back to an even bigger conundrum in college football: the potential need of a commissioner-type figurehead to take control of the game.

“We go back to the same thing,” Smart said. “We need great leadership. We need somebody to come along and say this is the way it’s going to be done and everybody adhere to it. Then we can do it. Will that stop gambling? Probably not. Will it stop guys from trying to get inside information? Probably won’t.”

The issue of insider gambling in college sports has become a major topic in recent weeks following the firing of Alabama baseball coach Brad Bohannon amidst an investigation into gambling activity at a casino in Ohio.