There have been a few high profile cases the past several seasons that saw the fingers of blame pointed in the direction of college strength and coaching staffs after the unthinkable happened and tragedy struck at Kent State and Maryland, in both cases where a player lost his life.
In both of those cases, the strength staffs were heavily criticized, and that has led to an important discussion on the reporting structure in place between strength coaches, their respective sports programs and athletic departments and what could be improved.
Kansas has become the first school to change their reporting procedure for their strength and conditioning personnel to where they will now report directly to medical professionals at The University of Kansas Health System and Lawrence Memorial Hospital who are now combining forces to form Kansas Team Health.
The new reporting structure is meant to, "provide the best care possible for KU student-athletes, and clearly establishes the responsibility of care with medical professionals while minimizing potential conflicts of interest between coaches and sports medicine staff," the school shares in their release.
More from the release:
"The norm in college athletics has been for sports medicine practitioners to report to athletics department administrators," Chancellor Girod said. "At KU, our student-athletes have received outstanding care, and we have not had issues related to supervision and adherence to best practices. That said, we knew we had a special opportunity to be innovative and get ahead of the curve. As a result, I believe we can tell all current and future student-athletes that they're getting the best care and training in the country at the University of Kansas."
This is a move that a number of places have been rumored to have talked about the past several months, and credit Kansas for being at the forefront of it and getting a structure in place. More schools will quickly follow suit.