The NCAA News - Comment

April 29, 1996

• Spring football practice can be safer activity ...By G. Dennis Wilson and Donald Bunce, M.D.
• Baseball coach turns a minus into a plus
• Columnist: College nicknames are no place for a 'Lady'

Spring football practice can be a safer activity

BY G. DENNIS WILSON AND DONALD BUNCE, M.D.
NCAA Committee on Competitive Safeguards and Medical Aspects of Sports

Injuries are part of athletics. On this point, there is no argument.

Disagreements may exist, however, when various groups weigh the benefits of a particular activity against its potential liabilities, including injuries. That debate has been going on for some time now, especially with regard to spring football practice.

The NCAA Committee on Competitive Safeguards and Medical Aspects of Sports understands the need for out-of-season practice opportunities and does not seek to eliminate spring football practice. It does, however, believe that measures could be undertaken to make the activity a safer one.

The committee has sought input from the NCAA Football Rules Committee, the College Football Association and the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) about the benefits of spring football. Generally, the benefits cited include the opportunity to work on fundamentals such as blocking and tackling, a chance to try players at new positions, and an opportunity to evaluate walk-ons. There is also a strong perception that the quality of the collegiate game will be lessened if spring practices are disallowed or reduced. While many football coaches agree with these benefits, others feel that the time has come to question these notions.

The competitive-safeguards committee does not dispute these positives, but it also believes the NCAA must acknowledge the high rate of injuries associated with spring football practice. Six years of NCAA Injury Surveillance System (ISS) data unequivocally show that the spring football practice injury rate is consistently more than double that of fall practice.

This result is even more alarming when it is considered that the 15 practices are spread over 29 days, leaving plenty of recovery time (as compared to the fall), and that five of the 15 spring practices are designated as noncontact. The spring practice rate of 9.2 injuries per 1,000 athlete-exposures is the highest practice injury rate for all of the 16 sports currently tracked by the ISS.

Those figures reveal nothing about injury severity, but the committee has evaluated the general finding in more detail. A more complete look at the injury data reveal:

* The concussion injury rate in spring practice is more than double that of fall practice.

* The anterior cruciate ligament injury rate is more than three times the injury rate in fall practice.

* Injuries requiring surgery occur in spring practice at a rate more than three times that of fall practice.

Those specific results justify the committee's concern that spring football practice puts a student-athlete at a distinctly higher risk of significant injury.

A number of reasons have been suggested for the higher injury rates, including more emphasis on blocking and tackling, less experienced players involved (walk-ons), participants playing out of position, more repetitions and players trying to make the team. It has even been suggested that fall injuries may increase if spring football practice is modified.

Any or all of these rationales may explain the difference in spring and fall injury rates. However, the committee has an ultimate responsibility to enhance player safety. Given the definitive ISS data, the committee has felt obligated to further review spring-football injury data.

Further analysis revealed:

* Eighty-six percent of reported injuries occurred in designated contact practices.

* The largest percentage of injuries occurred in the first five days of spring practice. The smallest percentage of injuries occurred in the last five days of spring practice.

* The greatest risk of injury requiring surgery occurred early in spring practice and in the spring game.

* Schools that had two initial noncontact practices had a significantly lower injury rate than those that did not.

* In the 1989-1990 season, Division II spring practices consisted of 12 noncontact practices. The injury rate associated with Division II spring practice that year was cut in half and was similar to that of fall practice. The following fall, the injury rate was only slightly higher than the previous average injury rate recorded for Division II fall practice.

* Practices designated as noncontact still involve significant contact. Although shoulder pads recently have been allowed in noncontact practices as a safety measure, the injury rate for these practices has not decreased.

As a result of the committee's analysis, the competitive-safeguards committee has suggested the following to the AFCA and to Division I conference commissioners:

* Require the first two spring practices to be noncontact and without shoulder pads.

* Reduce the number of contact days in spring practice from 10 to five.

* Better define the activities allowed in contact and noncontact practices to make them more consistent with their designation.

In February, the AFCA recommended to its members that the first two spring practices be noncontact (but in full pads) and that consecutive contact practices not be scheduled.

The competitive-safeguards committee stresses that in the current climate of permissible out-of-season practice opportunities, it is not recommending elimination of spring football. However, it strongly believes that the difference in the in-season and out-of-season football injury rates is real, significant, unique to the sport and preventable.

While specific modifications for spring practice still need to be agreed upon, the dialogue ultimately is positive for student-athletes.

The competitive-safeguards committee hopes that this continuing discussion will lead to productive, safer spring football practices.

G. Dennis Wilson is director of physical education at Auburn University and chair of the NCAA Committee on Competitive Safeguards and Medical Aspects of Sports. Donald Bunce, M.D., is team physician at Stanford University and is a member of the competitive-safeguards committee.

Baseball coach turns a minus into a plus

We often suggest that college baseball can enrich you in so many ways.

The latest example is just in. This is a warm story about a typical college coach, deeply wounded by the actions of some of his team members who broke NCAA rules, and how he and his players became better persons because they met the challenge forcefully, truthfully and head-on.

Meet Ed Flaherty, the high-principled head coach of the University of Southern Maine, an excellent skipper whose team was ranked No. 5 in Collegiate Baseball's preseason Division III poll. A coach whose team won it all in 1991, whose teams every year make a strong bid for top honors.

Flaherty was floored when it was revealed that several of his team members had been involved in gambling.

Here's how Flaherty handled the situation when he got the bad news: He called the entire team together February 13 for an emergency meeting. He asked all players who had not placed a bet to leave
the room. Fourteen left. Seventeen conscience-stricken players remained. (Originally, only four players admitted they were involved.)

Flaherty told Larry Woodward of the Portland (Maine) Press Herald: "When we approached this, it was very important to me that we get every kid who placed a bet. If we don't get every kid, it leads to finger-pointing."

The end result?

Two players, more or less the ringleaders, were suspended from the team for a year. Nine others received shorter suspensions by the NCAA.

The penalties, effective immediately, dealt the team a major blow as it opened the season. The 11 players apparently placed bets of about $4,500 on intercollegiate sports, which is an NCAA no-no. The other six bet exclusively on pro sports.

Players and officials were high in the praise of Flaherty and how he handled the investigation. "Winning is not what it's all about," Flaherty said in an interview. "When you're dealing with young athletes, you try to teach accountability. I can look these kids in the face and tell them this (the penalty) is right."

So college baseball, which could have taken a serious hit with this episode, comes out the big winner.

Columnist: College nicknames are no place for 'Lady'

Mary Newsom, columnist

"Remember the old days, when all doctors were assumed to be male? In those days, a female doctor got called a 'lady doctor.' Ditto for lawyers, judges and most other male jobs. 'Lady lawyer' or 'lady doctor' made clear the unspoken presumption that doctors or lawyers were presumed to be male, unless otherwise noted. Those days are gone -- and good riddance. It seems the only venue clinging to the illusion of surprise at the existence of women is college athletics.

"Welcome to the world of 'Lady' teams. That 'Lady' nicknames persist, and that some very strong women defend them says much about the continuing muddled condition of collegiate women's athletics and of women in general. The whole issue creates such nonsensical names as the South Carolina's Lady Gamecocks -- a biological impossibility. At San Francisco, the men's team is called the Dons. A Don is a Spanish nobleman. The women are 'Lady Dons' -- a grammatical absurdity.

"If noting their sex is so important, why not call them the Donas, Spanish for 'lady '? Some colleges tinker with nicknames to avoid being silly or tasteless. We have the Oklahoma State Cowboys and Cowgirls, the Massachusetts Minutemen and Minutewomen, the Montana Grizzlies and Lady Griz. Ultimately, though, that argument isn't enough. A team's nickname does not apply to a single sports program, but to all. It's time to deep-six the outdated Lady names, starting in middle and high schools."

Baseball

Larry Cochell, baseball coach
University of Oklahoma

Citing a decline in talent in college baseball:

"It has happened over the last 10 years. I don't have near the arms now that I had my first 20 years.

"It is a combination of things. Kids don't play baseball from dawn to dusk anymore. They play video games and watch television. They play soccer. And, the pros get all of the good arms."

Gary Ward, baseball coach
Oklahoma State University

"We are the residue of the system. It was an escalation of the bonus money. The pros were taking an extra 100 to 300 players. Those are quality players that were flushed out of college baseball.

"It is like going into a war and everyone has the same gun. In this case, we were showing up and they had a howitzer. We simply lost our ability to compete for those players. It meant college baseball was going to shrink from north to south."

Discussing long games:

"We do damage to our game when it is 14-13 and it lasts three hours, 40 minutes. Whatever we have to do to speed up the game will only help us."

Sportsmanship

Keith Jackson, broadcaster

"Sports should be played by ladies and gentlemen. Taunting is a social thing. It should have never been allowed to start. (Sports) is where (taunting) found its place. It's just not needed."

Recruiting

Pam Walker, assistant women's basketball coach
University of California, Los Angeles

"The idea that boys are the only ones who get the royal treatment is totally false. I know we go just as much out of our way to impress a recruit as Jim Harrick and his staff do. And that's the case at most of the big schools."

Homophobia

Martina Navratilova, tennis player

"I've asked a lot of writers this: 'Have you ever asked male athletes if they were gay?' None of them have, but many of them have asked women athletes if they are gay. But they treat male athletes differently. Even when they know there are some gay guys out there, they protect them."

Division I-A football playoff

Samuel H. Smith, president
Washington State University
Chair, NCAA Presidents Committee

"We will end up with some kind of (Division I-A football) playoff. I don't know what kind it will be."

Football tiebreaker

George Welsh, football coach
University of Virginia

"I've been an advocate of a tiebreaker for a long time, so I'm for it. I'm not sure I like this format, although I know it's worked in I-AA. I feel like we'd be better off with the NFL system of sudden death, where somebody kicks off.

"It's hard to plan for something when you get the ball on the 25-yard line. It seems like a team that goes on defense first has a little bit of an advantage, and that might not be fair."

Licensing

Bubba Cunningham, assistant athletics director
University of Notre Dame

"It's not a question of we don't do a Nike deal or we don't license like everybody else because we don't need the money. You make business decisions that are in the best interests of the university, not just the bottom line. Everything we do needs to fit into the (university's) plans and be consistent with our overall objectives. Everything we do is what every other department on campus would do. We just happen to be in a department that can generate some income....

"Our philosophy hasn't been that we wanted to get into a total sponsorship package, shoes and equipment and apparel and everything else. We've shied away from that so far.

"We don't see the real need to associate our marks with the Nike marks to drive our sales because we feel like we can drive the sales ourselves. We have been real fortunate that we haven't had to go down that path to sell the brand."

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The Comment section of The NCAA News is offered as a page of opinion. The views do not necessarily represent a consensus of the NCAA Membership.