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Highlights from the Inter-Association Guidelines

Year-round football practice contact:
•Preseason: For days when schools schedule a two-a-day practice, live contact practices are only allowed in one practice. A maximum four live contact practices may occur in a given week, and a maximum of 12 total may occur in the preseason. Only three practices (scrimmages) would allow for live contact in greater than 50 percent of the practice schedule.
•Inseason, postseason and bowl season: There may be no more than two live contact practices per week.
•Spring practice: Of the 15 allowable sessions that may occur during the spring practice season, eight practices may involve live contact; three of these live contact practices may include greater than 50 percent live contact (scrimmages). Live contact practices are limited to two in a given week and may not occur on consecutive days.

Independent medical care for college student-athletes:
•Institutional medical line of authority should be established independently of a coach, and in the sole interest of student-athlete health and welfare.
•Institutions should, at a minimum, designate a licensed physician (M.D. or D.O.) to serve as medical director, and that medical director should oversee the medical tasks of all primary athletics health care providers.
•The medical director and primary athletics health care providers should be empowered with unchallengeable autonomous authority to determine medical management and return-to-play decisions of student-athletes.

Diagnosis and management of sport-related concussion:

•Institutions should make their concussion management plan publically available, either through printed material, their website, or both.
•A student-athlete diagnosed with sport-related concussion should not be allowed to return to play in the current game or practice and should be withheld from athletic activity for the remainder of the day.
•The return-to-play decision is based on a protocol of a gradual increase in physical activity that includes both an incremental increase in physical demands and contact risk supervised by a physician or physician-designee.
•The return to academics should be managed in a gradual program that fits the needs of the individual, within the context of a multi-disciplinary team that includes physicians, athletic trainers, coaches, psychologists/counselors, neuropsychologists, administrators as well as academic (e.g. professors, deans, academic advisors) and office of disability services representatives.

Endorsements

Mark Richt
Head football coach, University of Georgia:
“Certainly this is a positive step in continuing to monitor how best to protect players while still maintaining the integrity and fundamentals of the game. Continuing research is also necessary as the game progresses with the intention of keeping the well-being of the student-athlete in the forefront of future rules considerations.”