Head trauma in hard-hitting sports such as football has been getting a lot of attention in the media over the past year. The NFL has made giant leaps to improve player safety in the rule book and on the practice field. This year, the Pac-12 will be doing the same.
In a conference call with media on Monday afternoon, Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott announced that the conference is launching a “Student-Athlete Health and Well-Being Initiative” that will aim to protect players from head trauma in contact sports. The plan came after an annual meeting with the league’s presidents and chancellors in Park City last weekend.
“This reflects the culmination of over nine months of analysis and studies and discussions that we’ve had within the conference,” Scott said. “The health and wellness of student athletes is of paramount importance to our conference and we decided nine months ago that we wanted to bring more focus and resources to the effort to do the best we can to educate and protect our over 7,000 student athletes.”
Across Pac-12 campuses, there are already more than 200 studies being conducted related to sports injuries and sports science. In addition to the studies already in progress, the conference will set aside $3.5 million in research grants for additional projects focused specifically on understanding and mitigating head trauma in sports.
“There is a high degree of awareness and a deep commitment from the presidents, athletic directors, coaches and trainers to do what we can collectively,” Scott said. “I can’t overstate the amount of time and effort we’ve put into this.”
In addition to research, the Pac-12 will set parameters on the number of days football teams will be allowed to go full contact at practice. Currently, teams are allowed to hit in 12 of their 15 spring practices. Once the season gets underway, teams can tackle up to five times per week under the current rules. Scott said that number will likely be reduced prior to the beginning of the 2013 season.
“We work closely with our football coaches … on the issue of contact in practice in football,” Scott said. “We studied and discussed with our coaches what progress the NFL has made in terms of what happens in practice and reducing the cumulative impact of …hits that occur in practice and trying to apply policies that are appropriate for college.”
Scott and the rest of the Pac-12 are making player safety a top priority after a comprehensive study conducted by the NFL in 2010. The research shed light on exactly how hard professional football players were getting their bells rung on a regular basis and it was catastrophic. Teams participating in the study had an average of 2,500 blows to the helmet during that season. Of those, an average of 300 hits were strong enough to cause a concussion. It’s assumed that players in the Pac-12 have been subjected to relatively equal head punishment, which concerns the league.
“Our focus is on what the NFL is doing collectively,” Scott said. “We’ve really been impressed with what the NFL has adopted where they are trying to reduce the risk of long-term effects of cumulative hits.”
Twitter: @Chad_Mobley