Atlanta Journal-Constitution by Jennifer Peebles and Willoughby Mariano
December 28, 2017
The number of concussions reported by college football athletic programs surveyed by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution varied widely — from 1 to 32 per year.
On the high side, Georgia Tech reported that its Yellow Jackets football players garnered a total of 32 concussions in calendar year 2014, and Georgia Southern’s Eagles reported 28 in 2012.
On the low side, two of the schools surveyed by the AJC said they had academic or calendar years in which their entire football teams suffered just one concussion each: The SEC’s University of Arkansas Razorbacks in 2011-12 and the University of West Florida’s nascent Division II football program in 2014-15.
A couple of factors could contribute to the wide variance in numbers of concussions between schools.
First is the definition of a concussion, which is fairly broad.
The NCAA’s “best practices” for diagnosis and management of concussions says it’s “a change in brain function, following a force to the head, which may be accompanied by temporary loss of consciousness but is identified in awake individuals, with measures of neurologic and cognitive dysfunction.”
