MINUTES OF THE
NATIONAL COLLEGIATE
ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION
COMMITTEE ON
COMPETITIVE SAFEGUARDS AND MEDICAL ASPECTS OF SPORTS
Key West Sheraton
Suites June
25-27, 2004
Participants:
Lauren Costello,
Jerry Diehl, National Federation
of
Kimberly Harmon,
Donald Kaverman,
Michael Krauss,
Robin Meiggs,
Melinda L. Millard-Stafford,
Georgia Institute of Technology
Matthew Mitten,
Margot Putukian,
Rochel
Rittgers,
Gary Skrinar,
Michael Story,
Laurie Turner,
Connee Zotos,
Jerry Weber,
David Klossner, NCAA
Mary Wilfert, NCAA
Hannah England,
Frank Pettrone,
[NOTE: These minutes contain only actions taken
(formal votes or stated “sense of the meeting”) in accordance with
NCAA policy regarding minutes of all Association entities. While certain items on the
committee’s agenda were acted on at various times throughout the meeting,
all final actions within a given topic are combined in these minutes for
convenience of reference.]
The meeting was
called to order at
1. Opening
Remarks. Mr. Mitten welcomed
the committee and guests. The
committee thanked Dr. Mazur and Dr. Millard-Stafford for their service to the
committee. Mr. Mitten announced
that Dr. Krauss has accepted the chair-elect position for the committee and his
name will be forwarded through the governance system for approval.
2. Approval
of Previous Minutes.
It was VOTED
“That
the minutes of the
3.
4.
NCAA Governance Actions and Issues. The committee reviewed relevant actions
from the NCAA Executive Committee, the NCAA Division I
Championships/Competition Cabinet, and the NCAA Divisions II and III Management
Councils, and discussed the following:
a. Updated the committee on the issue of reporting to and representation from Division I governance.
b. Reviewed Proposal 2003-22-1 and supported distributing a hard copy of the NCAA list of banned substances in addition to citing the Web site. Suggested this be emphasized though education of the membership.
c. Questioned whether proposal 2003-86 is limited to covering only men’s basketball athletes’ medical expenses or also those for women. The committee also questioned whether this summer conditioning legislation would increase the need to have medical supervision similar to that stated in the football legislation.
d. Noted discrepancies among divisions in the football preseason model that arose from the April 2004 governance meetings.
e. Questioned whether Proposal 2003-121 would also require medical supervision during the institutional vacation period for conditioning conducted by the strength and conditioning coach.
f. Supported the intent of the new insurance legislation but believes that it should be limited to athletics-related injuries and not open to all medical care. The committee raised concerns about equity and impact on sports medicine budgets following recent approval.
5. NCAA
Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) Report. Mr. Rausch, the Division III SAAC
representative recently appointed to the committee, deferred until the next
meeting in anticipation of the next national SAAC meeting.
6. The
7. Drug-Education
and Drug-Testing (DEDT) Subcommittee. Ms. Rittgers,
chair of the DEDT Subcommittee, previewed the subcommittee agenda for the
afternoon’s meeting.
8. Sports Sciences Safety (SSS) Subcommittee. Mr. Weber, chair of the SSS Subcommittee, previewed the subcommittee agenda for the afternoon’s meeting.
[Note: The meeting
recessed at
[Note: The subcommittees meetings recessed at
The meeting was called to order at
9. Outreach. The committee heard reports from members who represent the following societies: American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), American Orthopedic Society for Sports Medicine (AOSSM), National Athletic Trainers’ Association (NATA), National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA), National Association of Collegiate Women Athletic Administrators (NACWAA), American Medical Society for Sports Medicine (AMSSM), American College Health Association (ACHA), National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS), and the Joint Commission on Sports Medicine and Science.
10. Research Issues. The results of the Faculty Athletics Representatives Association (FARA) Hazing Survey were presented and discussed. The following recommendations were made:
a. NCAA staff should collaborate with the dean of students on campuses to encourage proper educational programming;
b. Educate the membership about what constitutes hazing; and
c.
Add hazing items to the next NCAA drug use survey.
11. Government
Affairs Update. Mr. Mitten gave an oral update on current
governmental affairs involving health and safety issues, including the progress
of federal regulations of banned substances found in nutritional substances.
12. NCAA
Legal Issues. The NCAA general
counsel gave an oral update on legal issues involving the Association related
to health and safety.
[Note: The meeting recessed at
13. Report of the DEDT Subcommittee. Ms. Rittgers called the committee’s attention to the subcommittee recommendations.
a. The committee unanimously accepted the following actions and recommendations:
(1) Drug-Education:
(a) Approved the final report of the Drug-Education and Testing Survey and recommended that an article be published in The NCAA News on its findings.
(b) Reviewed additional questions regarding “associated health risks” for consideration to add to the drug use survey for the Study of Substance Abuse Habits of College Student-Athletes, and recommended that these be considered for the following survey, as the 2004 fall administration of this survey would not allow adequate time for a full review of these additional questions.
(c) Recommended that the Center for Alcohol and Substance Education (CASE), the APPLE program administrator, promote successful APPLE- developed projects to the NCAA membership through the Web or otherwise.
(d) Recommended that NCAA staff draft a new agreement to secure and define the spending limits on the funds dedicated to alcohol education donated by Anheuser-Busch, since the original agreement identified the NCAA Foundation, which is no longer in existence.
(e) Declined to support the use of drug-education funds for the proposed Hazelden Professional-in-Residence program and associated services, but will accept information about resources to offer to the membership.
(f) Recommended funding Techniques for Effective Alcohol Management (TEAM) dues, and to explore the potential to use funds established by Anheuser-Busch dedicated to alcohol education.
(g) Recommended identifying hazing as a new category for the NCAA Health and Safety Speakers Grant topics. Also recommended that the NCAA logo be sent with the letter of approval to assist the member institution in identifying the program as “funded in part by the NCAA Health and Safety Speakers Grant.”
(h) Deferred action on a proposal to educate baseball umpires on the NCAA tobacco ban until additional information can be provided regarding the proposal and the availability of funds through the drug-education budget.
(i) Recommended continued tracking of the usage levels of the Resource Exchange Center (REC), and, if indicated, at the December meeting consider removing the password protection.
(2) Drug Testing:
(a) Accepted a plan to reallocate championship drug testing to cover more events in 2004-05, and to submit an inflationary request for funding to maintain adequate testing ratio in 2005-06.
(b) Recommended forwarding a proposal to amend, through the non-controversial legislation process, Bylaw 16.5.2.g, which clarifies what nutritional supplement categories an institution may provide to student-athletes. The committee supported providing the amended list of impermissible supplements to the NCAA membership services.
(c) Clarified the committee intent in the expanded year-round drug testing program to have all student-athletes sign the drug-testing consent form, but not to include those students who are trying out and are not on the squad list.
(d) Recommended the head coach or designee be strongly encouraged to participate in a drug-test appeal, but not to require participation.
(e) Recommended maintaining the requirement that the institution be informed of the use of a banned substance for a medical reason in advance of an NCAA drug test in order for a case to be heard as a medical exception, and that the case must go to an appeal if the institution was not informed prior to the NCAA drug test.
(f) Recommended that student-athlete notification in year-round drug testing be “in person or by direct telephone communication.”
(g) Recommended that once a medical exception is established, the student-athlete will not be tracked for drug testing whenever NCAA is testing on campus.
(h) Recommended
that the DEDT Subcommittee schedule an educational visit to the
(i) Recommended supporting a proposal from Dr. Gary Green to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to provide assessment, at no cost to the NCAA, of NCAA drug-education and testing programs. This support would include committee members being available for interview and for requesting a letter of support from NCAA president Myles Brand.
b. Ms. Rittgers noted that the subcommittee discussed the following issues and called the committee’s attention to the following informational items.
(1) Drug Education:
(a) The subcommittee was informed about the loss of NCAA funding for the Betty Ford Professional-in-Residence Program, and expressed its disappointment in the loss of a valuable drug-education program and its concern over the decision to eliminate funding in the face of positive feedback from the membership participants.
(b) The subcommittee received a report regarding the implementation of the Athletes Training and Learning to Avoid Steroids (ATLAS) program at the collegiate level.
(2) Drug
Testing:
(a) The subcommittee noted that the NCAA will continue to selectively test for erythropoietin (EPO) and tetrahydrogestrinone (THG) in championship drug testing.
(b) The subcommittee will review additional results at its December meeting of the UCLA carbon isotope resonance research on samples with slightly elevated testosterone/epitestosterone (T/E) ratios.
(c) The subcommittee will consider at its December meeting whether to maintain the category “street drugs.” The subcommittee noted that this category includes heroin, but does not include other substances classified as “street drugs,” i.e., ecstacy, pcp and oxycontin.
(d) The
subcommittee was advised that the drug-testing Fast Facts bookmarks are not
well utilized by student-athletes, and that the NCAA staff members and Drug
Free Sport staff members will explore other methods to make this information available
to student-athletes at NCAA drug-testing sites.
14. Report
of the Sports Sciences Safety Subcommittee. Mr. Weber called the committee’s
attention to selected recommendations and informational items regarding health
and safety practices and polices.
The committee listened to various informational items, and unanimously
accepted the following actions and recommendations:
a. Softball. Recommended that the NCAA research staff examine whether there is a statistically significant change in the number of home runs across and within the last 10 years.
b. Women’s Lacrosse. Supported a third party testing of eyewear to meet the ASTM standard for impact and encouraged US Lacrosse to seek avenues to establish the program.
c. Men’s Lacrosse.
(1) Supported a summit on commotio cordis with representatives from US Lacrosse, NATA, NCAA, expert researchers, ACSM, AMSSM, the youth baseball community and possibly the equipment manufacturers.
(2) Supported US Lacrosse’s suggestion to develop penalties for student-athletes that intentionally block the ball with their body on shots taken close to the net and enhance the education of coaches not to teach such a strategy.
(3) Suggested to US Lacrosse and the NCAA Men’s Lacrosse Rules Committee that officials should enforce current spearing rules and add a new rule to deter helmet to helmet contact and violent collisions with a severe penalty to the student-athlete initiating contact as determined by the official.
d. Soccer. Discussed the impact
of goal posts on injury rates and potential for injury. Questions arose as to the safety
benefits versus cost benefit of changing posts from wood and metal to vinyl or
padded posts. Injury Surveillance Systems
(ISS) data for injury rates with contact with goal posts shows very low
incidence. The subcommittee
concluded to continue to monitor the injury rates, and begin evaluating for
time loss and non-time loss injuries.
e. Field Hockey.
The subcommittee suggested sending
a letter from the committee to USA Field Hockey noting injury rates to the
head. The committee suggested that the
NCAA Field Hockey Committee collaborate with equipment manufacturers to develop
eyewear to promote extended view to benefit student-athletes in field hockey
but provide optimal protection, and to list eyewear
and gloves as permissive equipment in the sport rules book.
f. Wrestling.
(1) Supported
the recommendation, “Regarding
weight management issues, a same gender member of the medical/athletic training
staff or a same gender athletics administrator shall visually witness the
student-athlete urine sample. Only
the student-athlete should handle the sample until the hydration test is
completed. This should be
emphasized for the 2004-05 academic year.”
(2) Supported the NCAA Wrestling Rules Committee suggestion to allow a physician (medical doctor or Doctor of Osteopathy) to conduct the medical/skin checks, rather than specifically requiring a dermatologist to be present.
(3) Supported to allow physician’s or dermatologist’s decision to scrape lesions for determining skin infections and eligibility during medical/skin checks as a permissible procedure.
(4) The subcommittee did not endorse the practice of circling questionable areas on the skin with a pen or marker when referring student-athletes for review by a physician or dermatologist during the medical/skin checks.
(5) Supported the NCAA Wrestling Rules Committee suggestion to allow the games committee to request the tournament physician or dermatologist to re-examine any student-athlete who fails the medical/skin check the day prior to competition. The tournament physician or dermatologist should be aware of these cases the day of medical checks rather than the morning of competition.
(6) Suggested incorporating the weight management program forms into an online submission process through the ISS system.
(7) Suggested that the NCAA rules book editor or rules liaison contact the committee’s liaison for updated NCAA Sports Medicine Handbook (SMH) guidelines when updating editions yearly.
(8) Requested
that the NCAA Wrestling Rules Committee conduct a one-year follow-up on all
sanctioned institutions. In
addition, the committee suggested that the monetary fine should be higher
($250) for weight loss violations and weight loss practices, and ($100) for
administrative violations. If the
violations are not self-reported, then the fines should be increased (i.e.,
doubled). All programs in violation
should be mandated to go through a re-education training program. In addition, all violation should be
reported to the respective conference. Overall, the committee supported the
Wrestling Committee’s efforts in deterring inappropriate weight loss
behaviors.
g. Preseason Models. Discussed sport specific feedback and
developed a new model that is based on exercise recovery principles, but allows
for more institutional and sport specific autonomy.
h. Male Practice
Squads.
(1) Suggested eliminating
“male” from the practice squad bylaws to incorporate both males and
females. The subcommittee also suggested
adding bylaw language to require all students involved with practice squads
show proof of medical insurance and passing of a pre-participation exam. The subcommittee believed it should be
permissible to provide medical care for these students that incur athletic
related injuries sustained during a countable practice.
(2) The subcommittee
questioned whether these male or female practice squad student-athletes count
toward gender equity and if they are required to consent to drug testing during
the year-round NCAA testing.
i. Certified Athletic
Trainer/Physician Access. Noted
access at NCAA championship events seemed to be improving and that men’s
basketball provided separate credentials for the certified athletic trainer and
physician. Wrestling has improved
with a designated seat for the certified athletic trainer on the mat. The subcommittee suggested asking the NCAA
championships staff to provide three passes designated for medical credentials
for each sport.
j. Sport Medical
Coverage. Noted
that emergency care policies for the non-traditional season and the regular
season vary among schools.
Encouraged continued discussions with coaches and athletics
administrators about the high duty of care that is required for student-athletes,
the current SMH guidelines, and to review and practice all emergency action
plans. The subcommittee noted the
great increase in game injury rates versus practice rates and suggested to
ensure there is adequate medical coverage at games.
k. Operational
Standards of Collegiate Athletic Training Facilities. Recommended the development and
distribution, via the health and safety Web site, best practices for issues
within the SMH and improve awareness level that the athletic training
facilities are medical facilities that should be abiding by the Occupational
Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC), and state regulatory codes. Educate the membership on issues such as
drug dispensing, cooler cleaning, hydrotherapy cleaning, personal hygiene and
surface infection controls. The
subcommittee also suggested working with the College and University Athletic
Trainers’ Committee (CUATC) of the NATA on the issues.
l. Weight
Management for Other Sports. The subcommittee supported providing the
Collegiate Sprint Football League with injury rates and the wrestling weight
management policies as requested by Princeton University. In addition, the subcommittee suggested
reviewing or monitoring other sports that have weight standards, such as crew
or sailing, to determine if similar weight loss practices are occurring that
were found in wrestling.
m. Pre-Participation Examinations. The subcommittee was updated on the new pre-participation
examination monograph from McGraw Hill Publishing coming out in August. Reference will be updated in the SMH.
n. Reviewed, discussed and approved the SMH Guidelines revisions.
o. Sports science research
studies were reviewed and funding suggested on selected topics.
p. Insurance.
(1) The subcommittee will continue to work with NCAA staff members on evaluating the possibility of developing a secondary policy coalition of schools to reduce costs. Data collection for 75 institutions is already underway.
(2) The
subcommittee will continue to monitor the effects of the new Division I
legislative changes in the permissive language that allows institutions to pay
for all of a student-athlete’s medical care.
q. Noted NCAA Bylaw inconsistencies for pre-participation exam and medical coverage requirements for summer conditioning in football. This is not required for any other sport at any other time of the year.
15. Education Resources.
a. Members were assigned to review and update specific SMH guidelines for the next edition. A new guideline on catastrophic incidence (crisis management) was approved as an addition to the next edition.
b. Article topics were solicited for the fall Health and Safety Newsletter insert to The NCAA News. Members will be e-mailed a due date and a reminder of those articles identified for the publication.
16. Other Health and Safety Issues.
a.
Depression. The committee received a report of
recommendations to address depression and mental health issues for
student-athletes that was presented by Dr. Putukian
to the NACDA. The committee
supports additional education of the membership on this issue.
b.
Eating Disorders. The committee will be represented at the
August 5-7 Third Female Athlete Triad Coalition
c. Pregnant Student-Athletes. Discussion was deferred to the December meetings as a priority item.
d. 2005 NCAA Convention. The committee suggested that the following issues on the topic of Fiscal Responsibility be discussed:
(1) Cost of medical coverage and expanding services.
(2) Insurance.
(a) Student health policy differences; state regulations; overall coalition for secondary insurance; secondary insurance policies; out-of-coverage area insurance policies; practices related to the new Division I legislative rule; Pacific-10; what to pay for in medical care; and defining athletically related injuries.
(b) Language (direct result of athletic related activity, return to competition, under supervision of coach); tiering of medical coverage across sports or among athletes; and working with the student health center.
(3) Medical reimbursement models.
(4) Student opportunity and special assistance fund.
e. Homophobia in Athletics. The committee moved to support new funding for a proposal to survey the membership on homophobia in athletics to identify perceived frequency of discrimination, department non-discrimination and harassment policies, and institution-based education and support resources for athletics staff and student-athletes.
It was VOTED
“That the recommendation for new funding and survey be approved.”
17. Budget. No report.
18. Future Meeting Dates and Sites. The committee reviewed its future meeting dates and sites.
a.
December TBD, 2004;
b.
June TBD, 2005; TBD.
19. Adjournment. The meeting was adjourned at
# # # # #