Pac-12 Football Practices To Limit Contact

With concussions continuing to be a pressing issue in all sports, the Pac-12 has placed themselves at the forefront of the discussion in college athletics. The conference is moving to press at this issue, particularly by studying head trauma issues.

The Pac-12 released new information about their student-athlete health initiative.

Head Trauma Task Force: The Pac-12 will establish a task force under the Student-Athlete Health Conference to study head trauma and find ways to limit damage and exposure to student-athletes. Pac-12’s General Counsel and Director of Football will lead the task force and appoint coaches, administrators and doctors from Pac-12 institutions.

The pro-head trauma forces will be very much disappointed by this turn of events, but the rest of us should be pretty pleased that the conference is looking for the safety of its unpaid athletes. It also showcases how the Pac-12 can utilize the academic reputation of their conference (three medical schools ranked in the top 13 nationwide by US News) for the well-being of their athletes

The big topic of interest that'll interest most college fans is the topic of football practice and how they're planning to limit practice contact. More from the press release.

Football Contact Reduction: The Pac-12 will codify into a formal policy the existing practices across the Conference as they relate to limiting contact in football practice. The final policy will be released at Pac-12 Football Media Day on July 26. Going forward, the Pac-12 will look at guidelines around contact in practice to ensure that student-athlete well-being is being closely monitored, both in the amount of contact and in providing our student-athletes and coaches with ample opportunity to teach and learn the correct tackling methods during the spring and preseason.

Obviously there will be a lot of hurrahs from the other side of the country that always seems to think the Pac-12 lacks toughness and accents and deep fried Coca Cola, but this is a good development to ensure football players limit their opportunities at getting injured. While this could put football teams at a disadvantage against other conferences because they might be less comfortable with contact, this will hopefully be the first step in ensuring other football conferences beef up their own health policies.

If you think the Pac-12 is on the wrong track with the proposed limits to contact in practice, you're living in the wrong century.

— David Wunderlich (@Year2) June 3, 2013

What are your thoughts on limited contact practices for football players? Good, bad, indifferent?