The NCAA will require men’s and women’s player availability reports for the 2026 Division I basketball championships.
The NCAA men’s and women’s basketball committees in a Thursday announcement informed all participating teams they will need to submit their reports.
Key Takeaways
- Several NCAA Division I member conferences required availability reports during the football season.
- The NCAA views the reports as a “pilot” that could be expanded.
- A recent study found that abuse faced by student-athletes decreased by 22% year-over-year.
Various Division-I conferences announced before the current college football season that teams would be required to provide updates on the health statuses of their players throughout the week. The NCAA has now rolled that over to postseason basketball tournaments.
Teams will need to provide the NCAA with two health updates: one on the night before competition, and the other two hours before tip-off. Student-athletes will be presumed healthy unless indicated otherwise.
The primary motivator for the change was integrity related to the influence of sports betting, the NCAA said. The hope is implementing availability reports will reduce the harassment and nefarious messages received by student-athletes.
“After months of thorough discussion and exploration, I applaud the Division I Men's and Women's Basketball Committees for taking such important action,” NCAA president Charlie Baker said. “Implementing player availability reporting is a major step to increasing student-athlete protections by alleviating pressures for the enhancement of their college experience.”
HD Intelligence will be in charge of collecting the availability reports, which they already do for several NCAA member conferences.
NCAA announces implementation of player availability reporting for 2026 DI Men’s and Women’s Basketball Championships. https://t.co/jHWKf8VGfP
— NCAA News (@NCAA_PR) October 30, 2025
Working to reduce harassment
Availability reports will be available for every team competing in men’s and women’s March Madness, including teams participating in the First Four matchups.
The NCAA said it will monitor the success of using these reports as a “pilot” program, and could utilize them for other championships and events it sponsors.
Baker and the NCAA have been heavily focused on reducing the interference created by sports bettors. Baker campaigned for states to strike college player props off their catalog of available bets, leading to several regulators making the changes.
While a recent study commissioned by the NCAA found that online harassment was still a major issue for student-athletes, it also revealed that abusive messages and accusations of match-fixing decreased by 22% year-over-year. Women’s basketball players in particular saw an extreme decrease in the frequency of harassment.
“The NCAA condemns all forms of online abuse and harassment,” said Clint Hangebrauck, NCAA managing director of enterprise risk management, in a statement to ESPN. “The results from this year's study suggest that the NCAA's multi-layered strategy of building public awareness, advocacy and forming collaborative relationships with third parties is having a positive impact and has enhanced our ability to combat abuse.”
NCAA deals with betting scandals
Just last month, three Fresno State men’s basketball players were banned for participating in illegal sports betting.
The NCAA and authorities also have an open investigation into a supposed betting syndicate that repeatedly targeted small-conference schools with wagers such as first-half spreads.
The official test-run of the availability reports will begin with the First Four on March 17, 2026.
