What projects as the largest collaboration between coaches and training/medical staff in college football's history is in the process of safely -- and quickly -- preparing the sport for an on-time start to the 2020 season.
As the coronavirus persists, that effort includes numerous plans to start college football, the first being an attempt to begin with fall camps opening as scheduled around Aug. 1. Such a return includes the possible adjustment -- some may say "disposal" -- of longstanding, safe return-to-play guidelines. Specifically, two-a-day practices -- banned in 2017 -- could return for the preseason session.
While a timely start to the 2020 season remains in question, the conversation needs to be more about how to get to kickoff than when. Latest guidelines call for an acclimation period (7-10 days) for players prior to any formal football drills taking place. Guidelines introduced last year call for a "safe and effective framework" in order to ease players into strenuous workouts.
That would put the return-to-practice date at approximately July 15. Some say the so-called "drop dead" date for starting the season on time should be much earlier.
"I think we have to be willing to be nimble while still maintaining the standards of safety," said Brian Hainline, the NCAA's chief medical officer.
The three camps involved in the return-to-play decision -- coaches, trainers and medical personnel -- don't always mesh perfectly. They can't afford to get this one wrong in the face of the coronavirus pandemic.
"That is my biggest fear," said Rod Walters, a hall-of-fame trainer and NFL head trauma consultant. "If we don't handle this thing right, it's going to be another exertional heat death."
Since the turn of the century, the leading cause of death in the sport has essentially been offseason football with 33 players dying between 2000-16. The overwhelming majority (27) occurred in the offseason while players were working out in shorts and T-shirts. Since then, an avalanche of guidelines, position statements and recommendations from training and sports medicine have sought reform.
The coronavirus has turned up the pressure to answer college football's most pertinent question: When can we get back on the field?
That question will be answered by a combination of coaches who win with athletes, trainers who prepare athletes to win and medical personnel who treat those athletes on and off the field.
They all put the players' welfare first, but this task comes with an ongoing pandemic in the background and the unspoken pressure of getting the financial engine that is football back to fueling to college athletics as a whole.
"We have to find a way to play the season -- financially more than anything," Kansas State coach Chris Klieman said. "It will help every other sport. It will help the university."
An on-time, early-August start -- essentially going from zero to 60 in athletic terms -- would come less than 14 months after the NCAA's released specific catastrophic injury guidelines. The recommendations were developed as an answer to the nearly three-dozen deaths since 2000.
Now, the challenge becomes not only cleaning up the game but getting it back on the field. A coach/trainer/medical collaboration is deemed so essential that one prominent Power Five trainer quoted President Abraham Lincoln in this potential battle: "A house divided against itself cannot stand."
"The unprecedented thing would be the collaboration of coaches, medical folks and trainers on the front side," said Randy Cohen, Arizona's senior associate athletic director for medical services. "There is unprecedented planning ahead. … This is no different than the President and the Congress. The best way is, today, to throw out your agenda and work together."
Cohen believes practices can start safely Aug. 1 even with players essentially going directly from shelter in place to the field. However, not all players may be physically ready for practice when starting from scratch on that date. Cohen compared such a swift return to athletes recovering from an injury easing back into the lineup .
"My quarterback may be ready, but my two receivers may be ready to play only half the game," Cohen said.
That's where the balancing act comes in. Since 2000, players have spent more time training on campus in the offseason. In doing so, they were sometimes were pushed too far.
Three years ago, August emerged as a peak month for in-practice concussions with 58 percent of a year's total happening that month alone, according to NCAA research. Now, research shows those previously banned two-a-days may be OK in August -- or whenever the game returns, according to Hainline.
"It really doesn't make any sense," said Scott Anderson, Oklahoma's hall-of-fame head athletic trainer. "I don't know what science Brian is pulling from either because, the science I read, it's not specific to one-a-days vs. two-a-days, but it's specific to preseason. … Reduce concussions? No, they haven't."
Hainline responded: "We now understand head impact exposure better, and we have catastrophic injury safeguards in place. But that does not translate into legislative changes. I was thinking out loud as someone who understands the data and who understands the nimbleness and out-of-the-box thinking that might be necessary."
The conflict highlights a major reason why college football is the only NCAA sport with its own medical return-to-play guidelines.
At this point, just suiting up to play the 2020 season will qualify as a positive.
"I'm cautiously optimistic we can get a season in," said Hainline, now in his eighth year as the NCAA's chief medical officer. "I look at New York as an example. The city was decimated, but we are actually starting to see some light. But it took exceptionally aggressive measures. It's going to take not relaxing them all at once."
The Trump Administration has indicated sports in general is important to reopening the economy. Hainline was generally supportive of the administration's phase-in level of opening certain states.
"We are going to have to be in this constant state of readiness," Hainline said. "That state of readiness means that no one with any symptoms would ever report to practice. People with symptoms are tested right away. If they test positive, they are isolated."
A return-to-play date is further complicated because it would require various stakeholders to massage or reimagine the amount of preparation time that is deemed "safe."
AAC commissioner Mike Aresco said a "consensus" is forming around a July 15 return to formal in-person, on-campus workouts. That would give teams starting in Week Zero (Aug. 29) slightly more than six weeks to get ready.
Several coaches, including Oklahoma's Lincoln Riley, have said they could pick up and start from scratch in early August. Riley said he would need only 15-20 practices.
(This is a long article, the rest is in the link)
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cb...king-yet-safely-starting-the-2020-season/amp/
As the coronavirus persists, that effort includes numerous plans to start college football, the first being an attempt to begin with fall camps opening as scheduled around Aug. 1. Such a return includes the possible adjustment -- some may say "disposal" -- of longstanding, safe return-to-play guidelines. Specifically, two-a-day practices -- banned in 2017 -- could return for the preseason session.
While a timely start to the 2020 season remains in question, the conversation needs to be more about how to get to kickoff than when. Latest guidelines call for an acclimation period (7-10 days) for players prior to any formal football drills taking place. Guidelines introduced last year call for a "safe and effective framework" in order to ease players into strenuous workouts.
That would put the return-to-practice date at approximately July 15. Some say the so-called "drop dead" date for starting the season on time should be much earlier.
"I think we have to be willing to be nimble while still maintaining the standards of safety," said Brian Hainline, the NCAA's chief medical officer.
The three camps involved in the return-to-play decision -- coaches, trainers and medical personnel -- don't always mesh perfectly. They can't afford to get this one wrong in the face of the coronavirus pandemic.
"That is my biggest fear," said Rod Walters, a hall-of-fame trainer and NFL head trauma consultant. "If we don't handle this thing right, it's going to be another exertional heat death."
Since the turn of the century, the leading cause of death in the sport has essentially been offseason football with 33 players dying between 2000-16. The overwhelming majority (27) occurred in the offseason while players were working out in shorts and T-shirts. Since then, an avalanche of guidelines, position statements and recommendations from training and sports medicine have sought reform.
The coronavirus has turned up the pressure to answer college football's most pertinent question: When can we get back on the field?
That question will be answered by a combination of coaches who win with athletes, trainers who prepare athletes to win and medical personnel who treat those athletes on and off the field.
They all put the players' welfare first, but this task comes with an ongoing pandemic in the background and the unspoken pressure of getting the financial engine that is football back to fueling to college athletics as a whole.
"We have to find a way to play the season -- financially more than anything," Kansas State coach Chris Klieman said. "It will help every other sport. It will help the university."
An on-time, early-August start -- essentially going from zero to 60 in athletic terms -- would come less than 14 months after the NCAA's released specific catastrophic injury guidelines. The recommendations were developed as an answer to the nearly three-dozen deaths since 2000.
Now, the challenge becomes not only cleaning up the game but getting it back on the field. A coach/trainer/medical collaboration is deemed so essential that one prominent Power Five trainer quoted President Abraham Lincoln in this potential battle: "A house divided against itself cannot stand."
"The unprecedented thing would be the collaboration of coaches, medical folks and trainers on the front side," said Randy Cohen, Arizona's senior associate athletic director for medical services. "There is unprecedented planning ahead. … This is no different than the President and the Congress. The best way is, today, to throw out your agenda and work together."
Cohen believes practices can start safely Aug. 1 even with players essentially going directly from shelter in place to the field. However, not all players may be physically ready for practice when starting from scratch on that date. Cohen compared such a swift return to athletes recovering from an injury easing back into the lineup .
"My quarterback may be ready, but my two receivers may be ready to play only half the game," Cohen said.
That's where the balancing act comes in. Since 2000, players have spent more time training on campus in the offseason. In doing so, they were sometimes were pushed too far.
Three years ago, August emerged as a peak month for in-practice concussions with 58 percent of a year's total happening that month alone, according to NCAA research. Now, research shows those previously banned two-a-days may be OK in August -- or whenever the game returns, according to Hainline.
"It really doesn't make any sense," said Scott Anderson, Oklahoma's hall-of-fame head athletic trainer. "I don't know what science Brian is pulling from either because, the science I read, it's not specific to one-a-days vs. two-a-days, but it's specific to preseason. … Reduce concussions? No, they haven't."
Hainline responded: "We now understand head impact exposure better, and we have catastrophic injury safeguards in place. But that does not translate into legislative changes. I was thinking out loud as someone who understands the data and who understands the nimbleness and out-of-the-box thinking that might be necessary."
The conflict highlights a major reason why college football is the only NCAA sport with its own medical return-to-play guidelines.
At this point, just suiting up to play the 2020 season will qualify as a positive.
"I'm cautiously optimistic we can get a season in," said Hainline, now in his eighth year as the NCAA's chief medical officer. "I look at New York as an example. The city was decimated, but we are actually starting to see some light. But it took exceptionally aggressive measures. It's going to take not relaxing them all at once."
The Trump Administration has indicated sports in general is important to reopening the economy. Hainline was generally supportive of the administration's phase-in level of opening certain states.
"We are going to have to be in this constant state of readiness," Hainline said. "That state of readiness means that no one with any symptoms would ever report to practice. People with symptoms are tested right away. If they test positive, they are isolated."
A return-to-play date is further complicated because it would require various stakeholders to massage or reimagine the amount of preparation time that is deemed "safe."
AAC commissioner Mike Aresco said a "consensus" is forming around a July 15 return to formal in-person, on-campus workouts. That would give teams starting in Week Zero (Aug. 29) slightly more than six weeks to get ready.
Several coaches, including Oklahoma's Lincoln Riley, have said they could pick up and start from scratch in early August. Riley said he would need only 15-20 practices.
(This is a long article, the rest is in the link)
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cb...king-yet-safely-starting-the-2020-season/amp/
