The NCAA has long-toed an awkward line between utter incompetence and near-dictatorial power when it comes to the actions, they take to police the organizations and players under their watch.
When it’s a college player receiving gifts for the millions in revenue they bring to their school and the NCAA in the United States (U.S.). The league cracks down with gusto (like when they vacated Reggie Bush’s Heisman Trophy and stripped the 2004 USC Trojans football team of their national championship title), although that’s changed for the better in recent years with the advent of NIL (Name, Image, and Likeness) deals.
When it comes to taking the necessary steps to protect the athletes who make them millionaires, however, the NCAA leaves plenty to be desired.
Concussions are a serious public health concern, especially among athletes. The NCAA has taken a number of steps to address concussions and protect its student-athletes.
What Is A Concussion
A concussion is a type of traumatic brain injury (TBI) that is caused by a sudden jolt or blow to the head.
Concussions can disrupt normal brain function and can cause a variety of symptoms, including headache, dizziness, nausea, vomiting, fatigue, blurred vision, and difficulty concentrating.
Patients suffering from the symptoms mentioned above are best treated in specialized concussion clinics in the US.
How Common Are Concussions In College Sports
Concussions are common in college sports, especially contact sports such as football, basketball, and soccer. A 2013 study found that nearly 20% of college athletes reported experiencing a concussion in the past year.
Concussions: The Elephant in the Room
Research into the ramifications of traumatic brain injuries has improved by leaps and bounds in recent years. Once thought to be little more than a minor annoyance, we now know that repeated head trauma can cause neurodegenerative diseases like Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), and that athletes who take part in collision sports like football are at a greater risk of incurring these injuries.
The sad fact is that CTE can only be diagnosed posthumously, though, with no way of knowing yet just how much head trauma causes the disease, just how many concussions (of varying degrees of severity, mind you) or sub-concussive hits are too many for a player to withstand.
Just this year, a high school football player in Kentucky passed away a week after sustaining a head injury in practice, hitting his head off the turf and sustaining traumatic brain swelling.
Caution should be the name of the game if lives are at stake, but the NCAA refuses to make a stand and take accountability. Instead of issuing guidelines for athletics programs to stick to (and punishments if they put their players at risk), as they do so freely with other elements of the sport, the league acts like they are powerless when actual people’s lives and well-being are on the line.
The NCAA peeled back protections for players in 2022, ruling that universities no longer had to submit reports on how they handled traumatic brain injuries to their players to an independent review board for feedback.
Leaving the issue of how to protect athletes’ brains up to individual programs puts athletes at risk of being forced to play through injuries if they’re worried about losing playing time, leaving them merciless at the whims of coaches who might not be acting with their best interest in mind.
A Look at Malik Cunningham
That’s not to say that all college football programs are negligent: far from it.
NCAA football programs bring in millions of dollars each season (even cellar-dwellers like Vanderbilt or Rutgers). A star player not playing can affect the program’s revenues. You might ask how? This could affect live gate attendance, tv viewership, and even affect industries not related to the program like sportsbooks.
Last year, Louisville starting quarterback Malik Cunningham remained in concussion protocol and was ruled out for a Saturday game against Virginia. Kentucky Sportsbooks might see less action come in on the Cardinals because the starting QB must sit out… or see more action on the teams they face as sports fans bet against a team with a hobbled star player.
The Cardinals set an excellent example for the rest of the sport when they sat Cunningham for the better part of a month, keeping an eye on how he progressed as he healed from the injury to ensure–to the best of their ability–that it was safe for him to return to the field.
Something Left to be Desired
Other programs haven’t done anywhere near enough. USC football and the NCAA faced a multi-million-dollar lawsuit last year for allegedly covering up the impacts of concussions, allowing players to put themselves at risk by downplaying the consequences of their injuries.
Former UCLA players sued the school and former head coach Jim Mora in 2018, alleging that Mora forced them to play through head injuries instead of giving them the time they needed to recover. USC won the lawsuit they faced, while the UCLA case saw the charges dismissed before they got their day in court.
The NCAA won’t be able to keep dodging these lawsuits forever, though, as the NFL and NHL have proven with the payouts they’ve had to deliver for their own handling of concussions. With hundreds of millions of dollars potentially at risk (not to mention players’ lives), though, it’s in their best interest to take an active role in concussion education, management and prevention.
Challenges
Despite the authorities’ efforts, concussions remain a serious problem in college sports. One challenge is that concussions can be difficult to diagnose, especially in the early stages. Additionally, there is no one-size-fits-all treatment for concussions. Some student-athletes may need to rest for several weeks or months after a concussion, while others may be able to return to play sooner after diagnosis and treatment.
Another challenge is that some student-athletes may be reluctant to report concussions because they fear being removed from play or losing their scholarship. The NCAA has worked to address this challenge by educating student-athletes about the importance of concussion reporting and by establishing clear protocols for returning student-athletes to play safely.
The Editorial Team at Healthcare Business Today is made up of skilled healthcare writers and experts, led by our managing editor, Daniel Casciato, who has over 25 years of experience in healthcare writing. Since 1998, we have produced compelling and informative content for numerous publications, establishing ourselves as a trusted resource for health and wellness information. We offer readers access to fresh health, medicine, science, and technology developments and the latest in patient news, emphasizing how these developments affect our lives.
