The 2025 ACC Kickoff event in Charlotte started with a bang on Tuesday, as ACC commissioner Jim Phillips made a major announcement.
Jim Phillips says the ACC is implementing two polices for football, basketball and baseball.
— Josh Graham (@JoshGrahamShow) July 22, 2025
1. The league is cracking down on field/court-storming.
2. There will now be required injury availability reports. Those reports will be required two days before football games.
Following the lead of conferences, such as the Big Ten and SEC, the ACC will now mandate player availability reports in football, basketball, and baseball. Schools are required to publicly disclose which players will be unavailable for each conference game.
Football will see the biggest change, as they must provide updates two days before kickoff, with updates also coming in on the day before and the day of the respective contest.
Here's what Phillips had to say on the decision:
"This decision is directly connected to our ongoing commitment to best protect our student-athletes. And our multi-faceted approach to addressing the effects of sports wagering. In this case, it would alleviate pressure from entities or individuals who are involved in sports wagering that attempt to obtain inside information about availability from players, coaches, and other staff. Safety has always been taken seriously by this league, and I applaud our schools for further enhancing and formalizing these important measures."
In addition to the player availability reports, the conference is also aiming to crack down on court/field storming. The conference will be enacting new safety protocols and potential fines to help deter these situations from happening.
Both rules make sense, especially in regard to considering player safety. With issues tied to sports wagering, the player availability report will alleviate some of the problems with individuals trying to obtain inside information, as the knowledge (from the proper source) will be well-documented leading up to that week's action.
Court storming is also a glaring issue in college athletics, as we've seen plenty of instances where players are harmed due to it. By cracking down on this, the conference is encouraging safer protocols for schools to follow, as they will be penalized if they fail to do so.