National Collegiate Athletic Association

The NCAA News - News and Features

March 3, 1997

Emergency safety precautions top committee's discussions

The NCAA Committee on Competitive Safeguards and Medical Aspects of Sports conducted an extensive discussion about medical coverage at NCAA athletics events during its February 3-5 meeting in Kansas City, Missouri.

That portion of the meeting, which included NCAA Group Executive Director for Championships Tricia Bork and NCAA legal counsel John Black, centered on two issues: first, readdressing related language that appears in the NCAA Sports Medicine Handbook, and second, establishing consistency in the medical coverage required for the NCAA's 81 championships.

Regarding the first issue, the committee will adjust Guideline 1-A in the handbook to spell out that a person capable of providing emergency medical assistance must be physically present at every practice or competition. The guideline previously has required a person who could provide such assistance to be "immediately available."

As a result of the championships discussion, the committee will work with NCAA championships staff liaisons and committees in consideration of specific medical requirements for the respective sport.

Spring football

The committee also discussed action taken at the NCAA Convention regarding Proposal No. 125, which sought to reduce contact during spring football practice in Divisions I and II. Specifically, the proposal sought to make the first two practices noncontact, to reduce the number of practice sessions that might involve contact from 10 to five and to preclude the use of shoulder pads during all noncontact sessions.

The membership voted to refer the matter to the respective division management councils for review this fall, for the purpose of gaining a better consensus among all groups concerned about the safety of the football student-athlete. Resulting legislation could affect spring practice in 1998.

The committee determined that during the coming months, it will meet with the American Football Coaches Association, Collegiate Commissioners Association and the NCAA Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, as well as various medical groups, to offer a "counter-proposal" that would reflect the expressed concerns of the football coaches while also addressing the committee's injury concerns.

The committee's goal is to increase the safety of spring football practice, which the NCAA Injury Surveillance System consistently has shown to have an injury rate double that of fall practice.

Other issues

Regarding other issues, the committee:

Reacted to the NCAA Executive Committee's tabling of a proposed seminar for the professional development of coaches that would include safety education. The committee will continue to consider alternative ways to get this information to coaches.

Reviewed the various forms of outreach undertaken by the committee in 1996. Included in this effort was interaction with the following groups: College and University Athletic Trainers' Committee, National Athletic Trainers Association, American Medical Society for Sports Medicine, American Orthopedic Society for Sports Medicine, Joint Commission on Sports Medicine and Science, and American College of Sports Medicine. The committee intends to continue interaction with all of these groups.

Reviewed a request to become a formal sponsor of the 1998 National Eating Disorder Screening Program (NEDSP). It was noted that sponsorship is consistent with the Association's past educational efforts in this area and would involve minimal cost to the Association. The committee recommended that sponsorship be supported, and directed the national office staff to ask the coordinating organization to monitor the number of student-athletes who participate in the program.

The committee also recommended that the NCAA Student-Athlete Advisory Committee be encouraged to take an active role in this effort.

Sports-sciences safety

The NCAA Committee on Competitive Safeguards and Medical Aspects of Sports' Sports-Sciences Safety Subcommittee took the following actions during its February 3-5 meeting in Kansas City, Missouri.

Recommended to the NCAA Research Committee that $70,000 -- an amount consistent with previous requests -- be allocated for 1997-98 external sports-sciences research projects.

One of the projects recommended was a request for proposal on the "Effects of Creatine on Physiological Effects to Exercise (Other Than Performance)." The subcommittee also recommended the continuation of the anterior-cruciate ligament project that began during the current academic year, as well as pilot work on a study to examine overuse injuries in distance running and another analyzing the effects of multiple brain concussions on student-athletes.

Reviewed the February 2 brainstorming session on overuse injuries in distance running that was conducted with Dr. Russell Pate of the University of South Carolina, Columbia, an exercise physiologist and masters runner; Dr. Aurelia Nattiv, team physician at the University of California, Los Angeles; and selected competitive-safeguards committee members. As a result of the discussion, a draft form similar to current Injury Surveillance System (ISS) forms will be prepared for review by the committee at its June meeting. The draft also will be reviewed by the College and University Athletic Trainers' Committee and the NCAA Men's and Women's Track and Field Committee.

Reviewed current and suggested new guidelines for the NCAA Sports Medicine Handbook.

A new guideline on safety at athletics events during electrical storms was reviewed. It was determined that the guideline will be finalized and approved in June, and will provide an appropriate lightning-flash-to-bang time for determining stoppage of competition. The subcommittee also agreed to review in detail existing guidelines on nutrition and ergogenic aids, eating disorders, and concussions.

Reviewed the Injury Surveillance System and determined that it will begin out-of-season monitoring of men's and women's soccer, women's volleyball, and men's and women's lacrosse in 1997-98.

Addressed a question from the NCAA Men's and Women's Skiing Committee on requiring the use of helmets in the giant slalom. The sense of the subcommittee was that helmets should be required, but not enough information is available to recommend a standard for such a helmet.

Addressed a request from the NCAA Women's Gymnastics Committee regarding the raising of the height of the vault horse. The subcommittee determined that before it can make a determination on the issue, it will obtain the opinion of two biomechanics on the risk factors of raising the horse height. Resulting information will be reviewed at the committee's June meeting, prior to making any recommendations.

Recommended that national office staff interact with the Women's Gymnastics Committee to discuss Injury Surveillance System data that shows women's gymnastics consistently has the highest injury rate of any women's sport, in an attempt to develop means to reduce the rate.

Recommended that national office staff meet with the NCAA Men's and Women's Basketball Rules Committee to discuss player-contact injuries in both men's and women's basketball.

Recommended withholding support for proposed mandatory padding on soccer goals after noting a minimal number of contact-with-goalpost injuries as reported in the ISS.

Recommended continued correspondence with the NCAA Men's Ice Hockey Rules Committee to emphasize mouthpiece compliance and head-injury reduction. It also was noted that ice hockey helmets are not specifically designed to prevent concussions and that this should be communicated to officials, so that such knowledge might influence how they call games.

Drug testing

The NCAA Committee on Competitive Safeguards and Medical Aspects of Sports' Drug-Testing Subcommittee took the following actions during its February 3-5 meeting in Kansas City, Missouri.

Asked the national office staff to draft a protocol for the new probable-cause testing program approved at the 1997 Convention (Proposal No. 135). The competitive-safeguards committee's Drug-Testing Subcommittee plans to approve this protocol before the NCAA Executive Committee's May meeting. The committee determined that the focus of this program will be positive drug tests for substances specifically banned by the NCAA. The committee clarified that the program's reach would be limited to drug tests administered by national Olympic committees and national and international governing bodies of the sport in which the student-athlete in question competes. Workplace, high-school and NCAA-institutional drug-testing results will be specifically excluded.

Agreed that probable-cause follow-up drug tests would check for the presence of all drugs banned by the NCAA. Those student-athletes who have tested positive in drug tests at NCAA championships will be excluded from further drug testing when the NCAA is on campus for the year-round program (exclusions are Divisions I and II football and Division I track and field), because of concerns about student-athlete confidentiality.

Asked the national office staff to develop a protocol to implement an "unannounced testing" component in the year-round drug-testing program. The purpose of the program is to study whether such testing would provide a high level of deterrence in the use of those drugs on the NCAA banned-drug list that are quickly eliminated from the body.

Discussed adoption at the NCAA Convention of legislation involving use of tobacco products by athletics personnel (Proposal No. 134). The proposal amends Bylaw 11.1.7, which prohibits the use of tobacco products by all game personnel (including coaches, athletic trainers, managers and game officials) in all sports during practice and competition. The amendment calls for the establishment by sports committees of uniform penalties for such use. In a review of implementation of the amended bylaw, the subcommittee noted that the NCAA does not write playing rules for all the sports in which it conducts championships. Some sports, including fencing, golf, tennis, gymnastics, field hockey and women's lacrosse, use rules produced by the respective national or international governing bodies. The committee noted that since NCAA committees do not make the rules for these sports, they are unable to establish the penalties the legislation requires.

Agreed to examine methods to clarify for the membership that the drug-testing legislation spelled out in Bylaw 18 pertains only to testing done by the NCAA, and not to programs conducted by member institutions. Institutions are free to develop their own protocols and sanctions (or to have no drug-testing program at all), independent of the parameters established in Bylaw 18.

Agreed not to fund drug-education program development for 1997-98, noting that the program had met its intended purpose, which was to develop model programs.

Agreed to ask the Executive Committee to modify its policy on paying expenses for student-athletes who are detained for drug testing at championships because they are unable to produce a specimen. The recommended modification would expand the policy beyond pertaining exclusively to accommodation of travel on charter aircraft and would reduce the time limit for producing a specimen from three to two hours after the completion of the event. The subcommittee also asked that schools be granted some flexibility under the two-hour time limit to allow for special circumstances. The national office staff will monitor these changes to determine if they are cost-prohibitive.

Identified a need for further education on the use of supplements, especially creatine. The committee agreed that many institutions have failed to consider liability issues involved with the administering of such unregulated supplements to student-athletes.

Modified the drug-testing protocol by adding a section limiting the duties of site coordinators at championships, and by changing the specimen-concentration cutoff to 1.005 (from 1.010) for refractometer readings.

Heard a presentation on a new method to detect testosterone use and possibly the use of other endogenous hormones by student-athletes. This method, which employs the use of carbon-isotope ratios, provides the first direct way to detect such hormone use.

Authorized development of a poster for training and weight rooms to educate student-athletes about the list of banned drugs and whom to ask if a substance is banned.

Endorsed the current administrative procedure used to notify directors of athletics and chief executive officers of member schools of the reported use of banned drugs by their student-athletes.

Accepted a report from 1996 and 1997 APPLE conferences and approved funding for 1998.

Supported continued financial support of the Betty Ford Center/NCAA program until outside funding sources can be identified.

Agreed that unused funds from first- and second-semester sports-sciences speakers grants be allocated to summer requests.

Approved consideration of the development a World Wide Web page that would be devoted to alcohol and other-drug education for student-athletes.