College footballers suffered far more concussions during training sessions than they did in games, medical researchers reported Monday. It is certain that this will contribute to the year-long debate on the regulation of exercise regimes in the sport.
It is much less clear whether the university sports industry will nationalize security reforms, such as those adopted by the NFL, which limit the number of full contact practices per season or some college conferences. But with the NCAA and its members facing urgent decisions in other areas, including the coronavirus pandemic, far-reaching new rules are unlikely to be forthcoming.
The authors of the new study, published in JAMA Neurology, a peer-reviewed journal, found that 72 percent of the concussions they reviewed during five college football seasons occurred during exercise. And although pre-season training was about a fifth of the time the researchers studied, they found that nearly half of the concussions occurred during the period.
Changes to the rules that apply to games, they write, ‘are an important component in protecting athletes during competition’, but they claim that revisions to training activities before and during the season ‘could lead to a significant reduction’ in concussion.
“The biggest surprise was the size of the data, not just the trend of the data,” said Dr. Michael A. McCrea, lead author of the study and a professor of neurosurgery at Wisconsin Medical College, where he is co-director. of the Center for Neurotrauma Research.
“Most people, scientists or not, are aware that there are more full-time activities in the preseason than in the regular season, so I’m not sure if the trend of the finding is a surprise,” he continued. “But maybe the extent of it.”
In an editorial also published in JAMA Neurology on Monday, two other brain injury experts described the study’s findings as ‘shocking’, especially given statistics on concussion and headache exposure, known as HIE, during contractually regulated practices in the NFL
Professional teams may not hold more than 14 performed exercises during the normal season. According to league data, in the NFL’s 2019 season, less than 7 percent of concussions occurred during practice.
“Concussion in games is inevitable, but concussion in practice is preventable,” said the experts, dr. Robert C. Cantu and Christopher J. Nowinski, who were not authors of the McCrea-led study, wrote in their editorial. “Exercises are controlled situations where coaches have almost complete authority over the HIE risks players take.”
While acknowledging that the NCAA has issued recommendations and insisted on wider changes, they have sharply noted that ‘guidelines are not rules’.
The NCAA, which derives its authority from its member schools, did not immediately comment Monday.
In a speech in January, NCAA President Mark Emmert said the association had ‘made amazing progress with concussion protocols’, perhaps referring to a 2015 mandate that every school in a Power 5 conference annually Its concussion guidelines for a review if national committee. (The procedure was discontinued during the coronavirus pandemic.)
During his speech at the NCAA meeting, Emmert, without effect, called for the addition of a few teeth to our health and safety protocols, saying that there should be a system that holds each other accountable for the commitments we make. continue to promote and advocate and promote it. protocol. ”
But the NCAA’s legislative process is exhausting, and few sports businesses are as extensive and uninterrupted as college football in Division I. Although the NCAA practice practices time and applies rules around matters such as transfers and recruiting, the conferences that play football in Division I , an enormous daily power and set of policies that can vary from one league to the next.
In 2016, for example, the Ivy League – which plays in the soccer championship of the soccer tournament, not the soccer division of football, which attracts the most money and attention – has links with hits during all season practices. The rule stands alone almost five years later, according to the editorial.
The NCAA has often stuck to what he describes as ‘recommendations’ to combat concussion risks, including that three days of exercise each week during the regular season should involve no or minimal contact. According to the authors of the study, the NCAA had a limited effect in reducing the incidence of concussions before the season.
The findings, published Monday, have long been in the making. In the study, conducted at six Division I schools participating in a research consortium partially funded by the NCAA and the Pentagon, 658 soccer players wore helmets with accelerometers.
At the end of the 2019 season, when the study concluded after recording more than 528,000 headshots over five seasons, 68 of the players monitored suffered concussions. The researchers tracked down players in the Air Force, Army, North Carolina, UCLA, Virginia Tech and Wisconsin. Jumping practices are not included in this, McCrea said.
Most importantly, researchers have found the deviation from exposure to headaches among individual players, even among teammates playing the same position, McCrea said.
“Certain teams practice differently from other teams, and certain players play differently from other players,” McCrea said.
In addition to any overarching strategies that may emerge, he needs athletes to make more localized efforts to reduce risks.
“There is shared responsibility here: the scientists who provide the evidence, policymakers, institutions and coaches and players,” he said. “I think we all have a responsibility.”