American Athletic Conference finalizes new concussion policy
The American Athletic Conference ratified a new concussion policy at its spring meetings Wednesday.
According to a release by the conference, the policy encompasses the protocol in the NCAA Sports Medicine Handbook and also includes other provisions. Schools in the conference will be required to give the a conference an emergency action plan for each athletic site and there are also staff education requirements.
“This policy was developed to serve the best interests of student-athlete welfare,” AAC commissioner Mike Aresco said in a statement. “We asked a group of extremely knowledgeable, well-respected and capable experts to study this issue and draft a policy that creates the best health and safety protocol. An important objective of the policy is providing for the education of all those who work with our student-athletes in any capacity on the issues surrounding concussions.”
The conference also said there are additional football protocols as well. Officials will receive annual education, there will be a sideline communication plan for each game and team medical staff and EMTs assigned to the game will be required to have a pre-game in-person meeting.
In December, the Big Ten instituted a new concussion policy that mandated a neutral athletic trainer in a booth for each game to review all plays.
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Nick Bromberg is the assistant editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
