Final budget requests and priorities for the next two fiscal years highlighted recent meetings of the Committee on Competitive Safeguards and Medical Aspects of Sports. Tops on the list was enhancement for the Injury Surveillance System (ISS), the Association's premier injury tracking system.

The meetings took place January 21-23 in Indianapolis and resulted in four requests being forwarded. The budget needs, which encompass the 2001-02 and 2002-03 fiscal years, would require final approval from the three division Management Councils, as well as the Executive Committee.

The initiatives include:

ISS enhancement;

Full funding of the dietary supplement Resource Exchange Center (REC);

Drug-testing expansion; and

A "Student-Athletes Taking Active Responsible" Roles (STARR) project.

"The ISS has been a well-serving device for both the NCAA and the competitive-safeguards committee," said Bryan W. Smith, head team physician at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and chair of the committee. "It provides evidence of injuries and a tracking system for that evidence."

Injury data gained via the ISS contributes to rules and policy decisions, but a restricted sample size has hindered the system's ability to completely evaluate the effectiveness of those decisions on safety. The current system also provides general trends on frequent occurrences, yet offers inadequate application to important but rare events such as impact with a batted baseball or catastrophic injuries.

"The ISS would have picked up only one of the three wrestling deaths a few years ago," Smith said. "The membership needs to be made aware of the limitations we currently face, particularly regarding rare but significantly catastrophic events."

The system also cannot track repetitive events to the same individual -- such as concussions, which currently are an issue in football and ice hockey and a growing concern in soccer.

Current injury-data collection through the ISS is limited to just 15 percent of schools sponsoring a particular sport, and funding has limited the number of sports being monitored to 15 plus one out-of-season activity (spring football). Missing are an additional 21 sports and 36 out-of-season activities.

The committee's budget request of $250,000 for 2001-02 and $150,000 for 2002-03 would provide necessary technical upgrades over the next two years and expand sampling to allow participation by every NCAA school, sport and student-athlete.

"This is the premier injury tracking system, maybe in the world, and we want all institutions to be able to enter and use data," Smith said. "Nearly every training room in the membership has access to a computer, but right now we're doing a paper-and-pencil system.

"Our goal of getting every school involved in the system may be an insurmountable goal, but we certainly are going to keep trying to accomplish it."

Resource Exchange Center

Additional budget requests included $65,000 in new funding for each fiscal year to continue the dietary supplement Resource Exchange Center. Drug-testing appeals heard by the drug-testing subcommittee during 1999-00 reflected a trend in increased positive tests from supplement use. Two-thirds of those positive drug tests involved ephedra and nandrolone metabolites, both of which are ingested primarily through supplement use.

"We're seeing an increased use of over-the-counter supplements by student-athletes," said committee member Gary A. Green of the University of California, Los Angeles, department of family medicine. "And many of those can result in a one-year loss of eligibility. What the NCAA has done to help is develop the REC."

The first quarter of 1999-00 saw 130 requests for information by student-athletes and school staff to the REC through its telephone hotline, Web site and electronic mail staffed by experts in pharmacology and nutrition. Those requests escalated to 589 for the first quarter of 2000-01, and funds from the drug-education budget used to cover that increase no longer would be available.

"It's not the responsibility of the Internet or the guy at the nutrition store or a friend of a friend to know what's permissible," Green said. "The ultimate responsibility belongs to the student-athlete, and the REC is a valuable resource."

A three-year expansion of the NCAA's year-round drug-testing program, which began in 1986, would incorporate the following sports:

Year one -- Division I baseball; Division I swimming and diving;

Year two -- Division I wrestling; Division II baseball; Division III football;

Year three -- Division II track and field.

Budget estimates of $495,000 for the first year and nearly $1.22 million for the second reflect, in the committee's opinion, a high estimate for a comprehensive testing program. A plan containing more moderate implementation steps and reduced costs also is under development and will be submitted with the formal requests for Association-wide funding.

STARR program

Finally, the committee is seeking $180,000 in new funding for a 20-school, two-year STARR pilot program that uses social norming, a new strategy for reducing alcohol abuse that has shown success in campus projects funded by the U.S. Department of Education. The campaign's goal is to correct the inflated misperception that most student-athletes "binge," or abuse, alcohol. Actual "binge drinking" -- regarded as five or more drinks in a sitting -- was reported at 43 percent in a 1997 NCAA study of college student-athletes.

The STARR campaign will include a multimedia operation, presenting student-athletes modeling and promoting low-risk alcohol use behaviors.

The effort's goal is to enhance performance through nutrition.

In collaboration with the Student-Athlete Advisory Committees and CHAMPS/Life Skills personnel, the committee plans to: (1) explore the possibility of working with the "Game Face" program; (2) attempt to identify "model" campus programs that have been successful in educating student-athletes about nutrition and body image issues; and (3) develop a basic nutrition page as part of NCAA Online.

Other highlights

and Medical Aspects of Sports

January 21-23/Indianapolis

Discussed development of a strategic outline that will put the committee's goals and objectives into specific action plans. The group's next meeting in June should complete those action plans, along with a modification of the committee's mission statement.

Discussed a response to the Pigskin/AdvantEdge Classic and to the Mountain West Conference regarding use of Experimental and Applied Sciences (EAS) Inc. as a sponsor. The committee plans to contact EAS about its previous agreement not to use its name in association with the Pigskin Classic, and a letter will go to the Mountain West about EAS sponsorship of its men's basketball championship and why that contradicts Bylaw 16.5.2.2. EAS is a producer of performance nutritional supplements. Bylaw 16.5.2.2 prohibits member institutions from providing muscle-building nutritional supplements containing NCAA banned substances to student-athletes.

Prepared content related to health and safety issues for the first meeting of the Committee to Oversee the NCAA Football Study.

Supported committee involvement in the Joint Commission on Sports Medicine meetings in March.

Supported but did not endorse a team physician consensus statement developed by multiple sports medicine groups.

Continued to support drug education and drug testing, as well as the enhancement of compliance of the tobacco ban.

Sports sciences safety

The Sports Sciences Safety Subcommittee took the following actions:

Reviewed proposals from three external consultants and reviewed an existing Web-based information transfer system.

Discussed a survey of football student-athletes, coaches and medical personnel about perceived risk of injury in the sport and the effectiveness of teaching skills in various practice activities. Noted the perceptions of the three groups frequently do not match corresponding injury data, and that general and severe spring practice injury rates are at similar levels to 1997 and significantly higher than fall practice rates despite 1997 legislation. This information will be shared with the Football Rules Committee, the Division I Football Issues Committee and the American Football Coaches Association.

Considered four issues forwarded by the Wrestling Committee. The committee did not endorse changing specific gravity cut-off, allowing sauna use for non-weight-loss purposes, or having a night-before weigh-in at the final day of the Division I championships to accommodate television. The committee did support the request permitting weight allowance in dual meets within specific guidelines not contrary to the foundation of the weight certification program.

Recommended that current scientific evidence is not strong enough to justify any change in current soccer rules restricting the use of head protection on field players.

Recommended continuing discussion through the Women's Lacrosse Protective Eyewear Project Team to evaluate issues related to mandatory eye protection in the sport. The conversation should include discussion with eyewear manufacturers to determine the feasibility and interest in creating an appropriate device for the sport.

Noted injury surveillance issues should have priority of research dollars this year. Additional topics were identified and prioritized, should additional funds remain available.

Reviewed annual modifications to the NCAA Sports Medicine Handbook.

Drug testing/drug education

The Drug-Education and Drug-Testing Subcommittee took the following actions:

Met with the NCAA enforcement staff to explore options to address noncompliance with the tobacco ban, particularly for infractions by game personnel. Recommended contacting conference commissioners to request assistance in enforcement.

Reviewed preliminary report of the 2000 NCAA Survey of Substance-Abuse Habits of College Student-Athletes, a membership-wide survey that will be completed for the June meeting. This survey helps detect which sports and which substances should be of concern to the committee and to the NCAA.

Recommended changes in the year-round drug-testing schedule, including a reallocation of funds to accommodate a drug-testing pilot project in Division I and II baseball, beginning in fall 2001 with no penalty for a positive drug test. This recommendation has been made to provide more data regarding performance-enhancing drug use in order to make recommendations about comprehensive drug-testing in baseball.

Directed the Association's health and safety staff to work on a plan for a fair and graded penalty structure that more closely matches the sanctions of other governing bodies. Explored options for NCAA action when student-athletes have incoming suspensions from other sports governing bodies.

Recommended adding MDMA (ecstasy) to the list of banned substances.