Big Ten creating league-wide concussion policy, educating athletes on head injuries

Athletes at Big Ten schools will be required to sign a waiver after receiving education about concussions, the conference’s medical staffs and athletic trainers have decided.

The waiver will explain to athletes they are expected to be open and honest about their symptoms regarding head injuries to aid diagnosis and treatment of concussions.

The waiver was constructed during the annual meeting of the league’s physicians and athletic trainers that concluded Wednesday at the Big Ten offices in Park Ridge, Ill.Â

“In the NCAA memo, it says students will sign a waiver acknowledging their responsibility to be an active participant in their care,” said Dr. Jeffrey Kutcher, the director of Michigan NeuroSport and one of the attendees of the meeting. ...

“We decided to attach to that the education bit, so that it’s not just another waiver that they sign, because the athletes sign a lot of waivers and there’s a ton of legal paperwork they have to sign when they show up.”

By forcing athletes to go through an educational process first, it is the hope of doctors that athletes will understand head injuries and their effects better. Both the NFL and NCAA have recently amended policies for stricter guidelines regarding concussions and head injuries.

Kutcher said the education process will not be dictated by the conference and that each school can select its own method of teaching.

The document is the first step in forming a written policy regarding concussions for the Big Ten. A subcommittee, which includes Kutcher, will craft a policy for Big Ten schools on how to handle concussions.

This comes on top of the NCAA’s approval of a new memo last week asking universities to have a written policy regarding the handling of concussions.

“We wanted to do something that was more clear and addressed some very specific issues that need to be addressed and also clarify some of the things that the NCAA kind of left hanging out there,” Kutcher said. “We formed a subcommittee that I’m on and we’re working quickly to basically come up with very specific documents.”

Kutcher said the committee expects to have the entire policy written within “a few weeks.” Athletic trainers and physicians from Purdue, Ohio State, Northwestern and Michigan are on the subcommittee.

Kutcher said the group does “intend to address” adding to the final document a component about working with the academic side of universities to help heal concussions.

“When you get 11 schools together and you are putting together a document to represent an entire conference, by the nature of that process you can’t be too specific about it,” Kutcher said. “But everybody in the room acknowledges that when somebody is concussed the classroom is an important aspect.

“I think all of them would like to have an awareness of that and cooperation from the academic arm of things at universities so athletes who are dealing with concussions are given a whole bunch of time to heal and not be forced to take finals or whatever is going on.”

Michael Rothstein covers University of Michigan athletics for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at (734) 623-2558, by e-mail at michaelrothstein@annarbor.com or follow along on Twitter @mikerothstein