With the NFL recently facing a lawsuit for a ton of money to settle an ongoing concussion claim from former players, it looks like the college ranks are looking for ways to shield themselves from similar legal action. Starting with the 2015 College Football betting season, the Big Ten and the SEC will be bringing in medical observers to the press box to watch out for players who may have incurred head injuries.
Analyzing How Mandatory Medical Observers are Likely to Affect NCAA Football Odds
Four Oregon State players forced into medical retirement http://t.co/5G7Gxw6iun @zrobinson1 ? When did you enroll?
— Brian Child (@BYUSportsCave) March 3, 2015
While team doctors are nothing new, these observers will not be a part of either team playing in the game. They will be either certified athletic trainers or physicians and will have open communication lines to both sidelines and to the officiating crew. If a player seems to have had a head injury but is still on the field for another play, the observer uses the equipment for the replay official to tip off the referee, who then brings play to a stop until the team takes its player off the field for evaluation. Even if it turns out that the player is all right, he still has to miss the next play unless his coach uses a timeout.
Even in cases when the player turns out to be fine, this makes sense. Study after study shows that players are the most vulnerable to long-term neurological damage when they have a second concussion before they recover completely from a first one. One reason why the medical observers will not be affiliated with either team is that they neither have an interest in keeping an injured player out there for just one more play – or taking him out at a crucial time (as might be suspected if teams’ doctors monitored each other players instead of those on their own side).