Jimbo Fisher breaks down the gambling issues in college sports, possibility of adding injury report

As gambling has become an increasing area of concern across college sports, Texas A&M coach Jimbo Fisher compared the matter to the pros. Specifically, Fisher spoke on the idea of college teams adding official injury reports and how that would affect bettors.

More than half of Unites States has now legalized sports betting, and the extra information from an injury report could help the average person to stay more informed. Fisher explained how he has already seen people trying to find ways to get the information without it readily available to the public.

“It’s amazing how the folks who gamble already know it before any injury report’s out,” he said at the SEC Spring Meetings. “They know stuff sometimes before we know stuff. As crazy as that sounds, even their families, ‘oh, so-and-so was banged up today’ or ‘he pulled a hamstring today.’ It’s funny because they always have people around your campuses and you know your kids and who they’re talking to. I’m just going by what people are telling me that people have the vast amount of information they have.”

There have been numerous gambling scandals arise in this year, including one in the SEC. Alabama baseball coach Brad Bohannon was connected to a pair of bets placed on the Crimson Tide’s game against LSU and later fired. Additionally, Cincinnati has fired multiple staffers, while Iowa and Iowa State have had to bench players amid an investigation.

But while those issues are all internal, Fisher chose to focus on how people outside of the team could try to get information about injuries from players.

“The pros come in and talk to us and say, ‘I knew this, this this and this,'” he said. “Different scenarios of games whether it’s a pro game or a college game. The thing about college kids is they’re a lot more vulnerable than pro kids. They’re out going to class and who they talk to in a casual conversation, it’s easy to get something. ‘Nah, he’s all right. He’s banged up a little bit but he’ll be all right tomorrow.’ People get information out of them like crazy and that’s what’s happening.”

Ultimately, Jimbo Fisher doesn’t think adding an injury report will put a stop to any of those issues regarding gambling. Even if teams do make official announcements, there will always be people trying to get ahead of the curve. But as college sports becomes more and more like the pros, these are issues that have to be considered.

“No. Because then it’s, ‘how bad is the hamstring? How bad is the knee? Is it probable? Is it questionable?'” Fisher said. “You know what’s funny? Those guys (pros) can keep it quiet because there’s very few of them. When you’ve got 125 guys on a team, everybody on that team and you’re a mom or a buddy you go, ‘I know what’s going on.’ I think that’s the part of it that makes it different in college sports.”