Michael Ackerman is not a fan of football in college.
The Mayo Clinic’s genetic cardiologist has been to two college football games in his lifetime.
But if we have college football this fall, Dr. Ackerman be one of the reasons. His outlook on myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart, helped keep the Big 12 from canceling his season, which would have put a string of dominos who could have condemned college football last week. Without the Big 12, the ACC would probably fall, and it would have been increasingly difficult for the SEC to move forward alone. The fate of the 2020 season hangs on the biggest wild card of the Power 5 conferences.
The Big 12 brought in Ackerman for her call Tuesday last week at noon from a Sports Illustrated report that the conference was divided on what to do. The Big Ten and Pac-12 had already announced their plans to cancel the fall football season, citing myocarditis as a primary factor in those decisions. Before Tuesday’s call, Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby told the Dallas Morning News, “You would be less than immediate if you did not recognize between myocarditis and some of the new things that are new, it has the concerns have not been raised. “
In two weeks, it went from a secondary issue to the topic that caused much concern among Big 12 university leaders after several recent national stories detailed the risks involved. With the season hanging in balance, myocarditis was about to push the Big 12 into the same fate as the Big Ten and Pac-12.
Come on in, Ackerman.
The Minnesota-based cardiologist runs the Windland Smith Rice Sudden Death Genomics Lab, which examines, among other things, sudden death in young athletes. He explained to the Big 12’s leaders that a new myocarditis study in the Journal of the American Medical Association that grew panic over college sports did not have the “bandwidth” in a useful way transferable. The study, conducted in Germany and compiled from middle-aged adults, found that 78 percent of the 100 participants had some cardiac abnormality. Ackerman said it would be a ‘scientific bird’ to conclude that those findings are relevant to 18- to 24-year-old athletes.
“You can not make this leap,” cried Ackerman.
He used a sopanology to explain how to weigh myocarditis, including COVID-19-related issues, in the question of whether he would play football this fall. The conferences that canceled their seasons, he explained, stirred in myocarditis as a primary ingredient in their soup and then explained that the soup tasted bad. Ackerman advised the leaders of the Big 12 and Conference USA to take myocarditis out of that equation, and if she still felt like the soup tasted bad, then that was her reason for canceling.
Most importantly, however, he said they should not use myocarditis as a reason to cancel college football now.
“There are just too many unknowns to say that we have new damaging, alarming evidence that COVID-19 myocarditis is the big, bad spooky thing in town right now, and we need to do something about it,” Ackerman said. “Not new news at all; we knew this virus could affect the heart muscle for five months now. It’s not new, it’s just been brought forward in a new way, and it’s taken on a new life.”
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Ackerman’s expertise proved very influential within the Big 12 ranks. Here was a qualified expert without stakes in the question of whether college football would be played this fall, giving the green light to not throw in the towel yet. Baylor AD Mack Rhoades told ESPN Ackerman, “provided us with a level of comfort” that a player who tested positive for the coronavirus could safely return to competition after undergoing a heart screening. Big 12 leaders listened intently with “their ears wide open” when Ackerman spoke, according to a Big 12 manager.
Not long after Ackerman briefed the group on Tuesday night, the Big 12’s leaders decided to move forward with fall football plans. Bowlsby said Ackerman provided “very useful information.”
“We will take the advice of our medical advisors and medical experts in this field, and certainly Dr. Ackerman has a strong knowledge base when it comes to the areas of problems with myocarditis and cardio,” said Ed Stewart, the executive Big 12’s associate commissioner who oversees football and serves as a liaison for his medical advisers.
UAB AD Mark Ingram, who listened to Dr. Ackerman speak a day later at his conference, described a similar reaction among CUSA leaders who were increasingly concerned about a potentially fatal heart problem that most until recently did not know much about.
“When Dr. Ackerman spoke, it felt like this wave of relief,” Ingram said. “He had a very calming effect, a very logical voice in the room. I thought his conversation points were very balanced and logical in where we are with the virus, with tests and protocols.”
The cardiologist at the Mayo Clinic has no sugar coat so myocarditis can be a serious problem. Inflammation of the heart, caused by viral infections, can rarely be fatal in rare cases. Former Boston Celtics star Reggie Lewis, who died at basketball practice, died at the age of 27 from myocarditis. Brian Hainline, the NCAA’s chief medical officer, said last week that he was aware of 12 athletes suffering from myocarditis after COVID-19. It remains an issue that keeps close oversight within college athletics going forward.
Ackerman pushed for the Big 12 to consider additional heart-related protocols to reduce all possible risks, with the conference adopting plans to test athletes who had the coronavirus with an ECG, cardiac MRI, echocardiogram and troponin blood test. He stresses that any player who contracts COVID-19 must have a “sharp clean cardiac evaluation” before he gets the job to play back. He warned her to consider possible ramifications of mental health from canceling a season, and referred past experiences with athletes who suffered after being medically disqualified for heart problems.
Drawing on his own experience in dealing with non-zero risks with patients every day, he provided a path forward for college conferences in hopes of playing college football this fall.
His relentless plea swept the room with Bowlsby, saying, “the biggest argument is that no one has told us that it is bad advice to go ahead and do what we do.” Stewart told AL.com, “We feel good about the people we trust for information, and we will continue to do so.”
“They were refreshed by delaying what they thought was the heart rate train as their reason for ending the season,” Ackerman said.
There will be more toughness for conferences like the Big 12 and CUSA to overcome in the coming weeks. Fears of what will happen when non-athlete students return to campus have already crystallized at the University of North Carolina, which moved to online learning after just one week. COVID-19 testing of concerns and the challenges to quarantine restrictions for athletes are not going away. A decision to advance one week in August does not guarantee that every college football game will be played this fall.
Yet no issue has scared fellow leaders like myocarditis the last two weeks. Pac-12 ADs and coaches were in favor of playing a fall season until a conversation with the conference’s medical advisors on coronavirus-related heart problems made it a “no-brainer,” to cancel the fall season, a Pac said. -12-coach The Athletic. The call of the Big 12 could have gone in a similar direction without Ackerman’s perspective. If it had, any semblance of a 2020 fall season would be dead.
Ackerman will not be attending any games at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium or Bryant-Denny Stadium at any time.
But if games are played in these stadiums this fall, he will be one of the reasons.
John Talty is the Sports Editor and SEC Insider for Alabama Media Group. You can follow him on Twitter @JTalty.
