ND is an independent for football. For all other sports, ND is a member of the ACC conference.
Heading soccer balls causes CTE in young players. It should not be allowed in practice drills in my opinion.
It’s not just heading balls. Players knock heads too. I’ve seen players hit posts. Also when slide tackling or just when the ball is in the box and players are trying to kick the ball into the goal. Both goalie and a player go for ball at the same time, knock heads, or field player kicks goalie in head). Just falling to the ground after being tripped, either accidentally or on purpose.
Edit: As for heading in practice, youth rules around practice heading (limited by age or eliminated) were changed years ago.
Soccer players, especially those 12 years old & under, should wear a protective headgear somewhat similar to what boxers wear during sparring sessions (training).
It’s available. A few wear it, most don’t. The kids feel it’s just not cool looking. But ultimately, it’s a parent decision.
While we’re making sports safer, we should also work on the vaping problem too.
It should be a league rule.
Sure, but the mandate should come from US Soccer, not from individual leagues around the country. And the referees would have to enforce it.
It’s amazing to me that football gets all the attention, when it comes to CTE. However, there are more kids playing soccer than football, especially around the world, and the injury rate is very high. I read a study distributed by our local soccer association that 60% of the kids playing soccer report having concussion symptoms annually.
But football gets all the attention.
@waitingmomla that is my understanding. At one point I knew the details, but that was years ago and it probably has changed so I won’t even try to do that. But generally some revenue (I think primarily tv) gets generated for the conference, not the individual team. If you are a popular team competing for a national championship, you will draw more viewers than an unpopular one, and will generate more revenue for the conference. ND doesn’t have to share its football revenue with anyone. That’s why they don’t play football in the ACC. If all of their other sports are there, it makes sense to combine in football. I don’t know what the ACC would pay ND if they participated in the revenue share on football. But there is no chance it is more than ND makes on it’s own.
Soccer made the following rule changes in March 2016:
Players in U-11 programs and younger shall not engage in heading, either in practices or in games.
Limited heading in practice for players in U-12 and U-13 programs. More specifically, these players shall be limited to a maximum of 30 minutes of heading training per week, with no more than 15-20 headers per player, per week.
Clubs should be aware of circumstances in which individual consideration is needed. For example:
A 10 year old playing at U-12 or older should not head the ball at all.
An 11 or 12 year old playing at U-14 or older should abide by the heading restrictions in practice.
I have seen multiple officials in different tournaments call penalty kicks against players for heading the ball. Less so now, because after that first year players (and coaches) realized that they couldn’t get away with it.
I’m not saying that addresses all of the issues with heading in soccer, but just wanted to contribute the current rules to the forum.
Also, my daughter’s HS team requires the headgear. The girls all hate it.
I am about 50/50 getting her to wear it during club season. I would be happy if they just made it a rule.
There’s some disagreement on the use of headgear and mouthguards. Some believe that the headgear and mouthguards give players a false sense of security and thus they’ll take greater risks on the field and make the game less safe.
Have there been extensive studies showing CTE in soccer players, as there have with football players? If so then my concern is similar. I wouldn’t let my kid play, now.
Not really about concussions.
I don’t know about “extensive,” but there are studies on soccer players. Just google “CTE studies soccer” and you’ll see all sorts of info.
Here’s one from the NCBI/NIH:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5674664/
Here’s a CNN article about four fomer soccer players:
https://www.cnn.com/2017/02/14/health/brain-damage-dementia-cte-soccer-football-study/index.html
But it’s clearly not publicized as much as CTE in football.
Seems like it’s about 200 football vs 5 soccer. But this is a tangent and I will bow out of the thread now 
Football brought the problem to light. But soccer is coming on strong, now we know that there’s a problem there too.
The public doesn’t seem to care that obesity rates are climbing in the US and that affects a larger population than just the potential of players of sports with CTE:
https://www.webmd.com/diet/obesity/news/20180612/us-obesity-rates-rising-again#1
I wouldn’t let my kid become obese, just as I wouldn’t allow him to play football. Or shoot heroin. Or drive drunk. Or many things I deem dangerous to his health.
I sure as heck wouldn’t celebrate it.
Yes, let’s celebrate shooting heroin, drunk driving and obesity. Oy vey. 8-} 8-|
At this point, the mods should close the thread, since some folks have taken the “College Football’s Most Valuable Teams” ranking off on a tangent.
I take any Forbes poll with a ton of salt. A few years ago I remember them ranking Palo Alto as one of the top 10 college sports towns, while leaving Columbus, Ohio out altogether. I’ve lived in both Columbus and the Bay Area. Columbus is obsessed with Ohio State athletics, almost to the point of embarrassment, while the only time Palo Alto pays even the slightest attention to Stanford athletics is when the football team plays Cal or USC.
Texas A&M should be in the 10-15 range. To rank it above Ohio State, Michigan, Alabama, Notre Dame, Florida, Texas and others is absurd.
Forbes also rated New York, Tokyo and London as among the most beautiful cities in the world, which i also find ridiculous. I like all three cities, but they are not beautiful.
Truth. Uber and Lyft surge exponentially when the Buckeyes play, home or away. Scarlet and grey worn and displayed everywhere. I’d never seen anything like it and I spent a lot of time in Texas.
I’ve decided that phenomenon is because 1: they win most of the time, 2: almost everyone in Ohio either went to OSU or has a family member who does/did (it produces ~50k undergrads a year plus all the grad schools), 3: there is no pro football team in Columbus, and 4: Ohio has one clear (football) flagship unlike Texas and CA.