Ivy League Limit Full-Contact Practice To Twice A Week

The Ivy League has announced that it will limit full-contact practices throughout the league to two for each team each week. The NCAA limit is five.

The Ivy League is trying to put itself in the forefront of the fight to limit football-related concussions, which have gotten increasing attention in recent years, both in the NFL and NCAA.

The league will also strive to educate its players regarding correct tackling technique and on long-term problems caused by concussions. It will also carefully monitor helmet-to-helmet hits.

Al Bagnoli of Penn, the dean of Ivy League coaches, was a member of the committee.

“We just tried to look at reasonable ways to help the concussion issue,” Bagnoli said in a telephone interview, “without necessarily changing the way football is played or changing the quality of the product.”

The Ivy League will soon begin reviewing its hockey, soccer and lacrosse programs for concussion-related issues.

It would be very surprising if other conferences began enacting similar policies anytime soon - there’s way too much money in college football for most leagues to try something this radical. But it is possible that in a couple decades, the Ivy League could turn out to have been leaders in this issue.