According to the AP, the NCAA will be donating $400,000 to help fund a research project;
The National Sport Concussion Outcomes Study Consortium plans to study more than 1,000 male and female college athletes who compete in 11 sports at three schools. Researchers hope to track those athletes after their college careers end and examine the long-term effects of head injuries in hopes of gaining a more comprehensive understanding about brain injuries.
As you can see the actual long-term studies with current technology and assessment tools is JUST NOW getting underway. I don’t believe we will actually fully understand the impact until the longitudinal studies are completed. We should get our first glimpse from research Down Under.
The Concussion Blog 
Am curious, Dustin, do you know who are the specific persons conducting this research / scheduled to conduct this research? Thank you.
The National Sport Concussion Outcomes Study Consortium will be led by experts from the Medical College of Wisconsin, the University of Michigan, UCLA, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Same people that are on the NFL payroll.
http://wauwatosa.patch.com/articles/ncaa-funds-concussion-research-at-the-medical-college-of-wisconsin
Very disappointing information, Joe…
Fresh researcher minds that are free from conflicts of interests (COIs) or the appearance of COIs are needed…to remove the clouds of collusions…and give credibility to the research efforts…
Sadly, nothing changes if nothing changes seems to apply…
It is not shocking but I agree with Dr. Brady… Fresh eyes on this would make research more powerful… My only hope is that Dr. Hovda and Dr. Broglio are involved… Some may disagree with me but those two seem more midline (prob others too) than most…
NCAA really needs to open its check book. They spend more than that on cheer leading guidelines.
http://www.sportsconcussions.org/ibaseline/ncaa-funds-long-term-concussion-study.html
“”We’re hoping this could become a Framingham heart study for sports concussion,” says Kutcher, referring to the study that began in 1948 with more than 5,000 people and has led to the identification of major cardiovascular disease risk factors.”
Does the University of Michigan receive money from the NFL? I know Kutcher testified before congress, but can’t recall if he became a member of the NFL’s reconfigured committee.
Kutcher is on the pad. UMich does depression for the NFL for the last decade.
Concerned mom you should see his comments regarding hockey injuries that are even more lamentable. Of course he wants a Framingham study so his lab is paid for 40 years and we get no useful results.
There are much more direct approaches that are faster and cheaper and both the NFL and NCAA are actively avoiding them.
If you are a skeptic…
1- The proposed longitudinal studies may be used to further delay acknowledging/accepting the potential significant risks of an athlete suffering a concussion.
Similar to saying more CTE studies are necessary before becoming concerned for the athlete…
2- Researching concussions is not an easy task as there are many faces / symptoms of a concussion and a wide desparity exists re what constitutes an adequate assessment of a concussion.
3- If concussions were akin to being a side effect of a new medicine / drug, then the medicine would be pulled by the FDA…
thus perhaps a sport that has produced the side effect of many concussions should be pulled from being a legal and recognized sport?
4- Excerpts from Brady’s (2004) NFL Players’ concussion-related dissertation research re conflicts of interest (COI’s) and research funding:
Voicing concern that human interests and related social forces influence “the direction and content of scientific research,” Martin (1979) specifically cautioned about accepting research being conducted under the cloak of “science” (p. 85).
Martin also stressed the importance of recognizing the interconnection of “powerful, wealthy and prestigious social forces: government; large corporations; and universities whose research is also frequently funded by the prior two social forces.”
It should also be pointed out that the institution of sport has become intertwined with these social forces