Big Ten requires availability reports for soccer games

The Big Ten Conference requires its member schools to submit a player availability report no later than two hours before each football game this season.

The conference announced the rule on Friday, less than a week before Minnesota and Nebraska become the first teams in the Big Ten to open the season in Minneapolis on Thursday.

Additionally, the conference announced in a press release that it is working with US Integrity to “increase surveillance efforts and provide additional educational resources to prevent student athletes, coaches and staff from engaging in prohibited sports betting.”

In recent months, football and baseball players from the Iowa Big Ten program have been among athletes across the country embroiled in betting scandals.

“The well-being of our students, coaches and staff and the integrity of our competitions are of the utmost importance,” said Big Ten Commissioner Tony Petitti in the press release. “Increased transparency through uptime reporting and our partnership with US Integrity reinforce our efforts to protect our game players and the integrity of the games themselves. I am grateful for the cooperation of our schools, coaches and administrators.”

During the football season, any Big Ten team that fails to file its game-day injury and availability report is subject to conference disciplinary action.

US Integrity works with a number of professional sports leagues and college conferences to provide protection against betting-related fraud and corruption.

—Field-level media