Some schools are pretty up front and straightforward about injury reports. And then there's us, on the other end of the spectrum.

Yesterday I was starting work on the preview for Friday's game, and I saw this report from St. Joseph's on a starting player. It made me wonder again why Loyola is so secretive about injury reports. The irony is, our radio and tv broadcasts actually sell a feature, the NovaCare injury report. When there is no information, people sometimes make up things to fill the void of knowledge. So it often actually incites more problems if there is no statement made about injuries. And since we don't have a dedicated major newspaper beat writer anymore, there's aren't any information sources operating under an understood journalistic code to be gatekeepers on confidentiality, accuracy, credible sources, etc.

I don't know what's gained by not being up front about it. I actually think reporting on injuries makes the fan base more involved and passionate. I wish there could be a policy developed to make the issue clear.

Thoughts?

So true. I can't imagine how pumped I would be if I read in the Southtown Star that Bruno Skokna had turf toe!!!

Excuse my snark.

I think the issue has to do with a school's potential legal liability if it discloses information about a student-athlete's injury and it is later determined that such disclosure violated federal privacy laws such as HIPAA.

I absolutely do not want to get into a discussion about the proper interpretation of HIPAA and whether this fear is justified, but my guess is that's what's behind Loyola's seeming reluctance to release info on injuries.

The compliance guy for athletics is Jay Malcolm. Maybe you can ask him what the policy is on releasing info on injuries and what the rationale behind it is.