Michigan Football: Wolverines' Concussion Prevention Better Than Just Studies

For all the concern (rightly) arising over concussions, CTE and brain health in general in college football, there hasn't been much done in the way of changing policies or practices in the sport.

Part of that is just natural resistance to change, but there's also the incredibly complex nature of head injuries and their causes and effects that makes meaningful systemic change difficult. How do you solve a problem you don't fully understand?

Count Michigan among those trying the hardest to understand—and count the rest of the Big Ten in as well.

AnnArbor.com's Nick Baumgardner cataloged the litany of steps Michigan's football program takes to protect players from concussions. Some of it's as simple as having three different brands of helmet available to each player in order to find the one that fits his head the best.

And some of it—well, it's not brain surgery, but it's very, very close. That's because Michigan has a full-time neurologist on its football team: Jeffrey Kutcher.

According to his bio, he's an actual, board-certified doctor of neurology, and he's also a clinical associate professor in neurology at Michigan. So if there's anything to be known about concussion safety in this sport, Michigan's program is in position to know it as well as anybody.

The conference is getting in on the act, too. On Tuesday, the Big Ten and Ivy League announced a joint study of head injuries in all sports. Here's what one participating doctor told ESPN.com:

"

"If we can pull it off, and there's a good chance we can do it, this would be the largest research undertaking," Dr. Dennis Molfese, the director of the center for brain, biology and behavior at the University of Nebraska, told ESPN.com.

"The big problem with concussion research in the past is you end up looking at people who suffer a concussion, but you never know what they were like before they experienced a concussion. So that's one thing, from a scientific standpoint, to have a level where you can do this.

"It's quite unique to be able to track large groups of individuals over time, knowing what their state was before they experienced the concussion."

"

The study hinges on both short-term and long-term participation by athletes, who must agree to be evaluated.

The study's a good thing. Any strengthening of available data in a study is good. As Michael Felder points out, though, there's also a point where there's enough data to start taking action.

Michigan's at that point, and it's taking huge steps toward protecting player health. Every school in the Big Ten should be doing these things. Every school in the NCAA should be doing these things. This sport is spectacularly dangerous for brain health in its athletes. Why isn't a team neurologist either mandatory or at the very least the norm?

Money simply cannot be an issue on this front. Whatever Michigan's paying its neurologist for his work with the football team, it's pennies compared to the coaching staff's overall salary.

The Big Ten brings in tens of millions of dollars in mere television revenue alone for each school. Nearly every FBS team enjoys a generous paycheck for television revenue, to say nothing of gate receipts. If they really wanted to, they could all afford a neurologist.

But let's say there's a low-level FBS school—let's use a fictional "Alabama Tech" so nobody feels unnecessarily picked on—whose athletic department is hemorrhaging money and legitimately can't put a doctor on its staff for its football program.

Let's say it's a $100,000 fee and Tech can't make it happen. Then you know what? That football program shouldn't exist anymore. No football program that can't afford to take the best possible care of its athletes' well-being and long-term health should exist.

Football players aren't four-year commodities to be used up for entertainment and then spit out into the world. They're young men. They're human beings with the same amount of potential as anyone else between 18-23.

It's fun to watch these guys play ball, without a doubt, but if we can't take care of them, we don't deserve them, and that's that. It's nice to know that at least Michigan gets that.