Education Session on Playing and Practice Season Time Limitations

1
Education Session on Playing and Practice Season
Time Limitations

• NCAA Division I rules effective August 1, 2003.

2
Overview

• Hour limitations
• In-season hour limitations.
• Out-of-season hour limitations.
• Preseason and academic year vacation period hour
  limitations.
• Multisport student-athlete hour limitations.
• Permissible activities during the playing season
• General information.
• Countable athletically related activities.
• Permissible activities outside the playing
  season
• Skill instruction
• Conditioning activities
• Definition of voluntary.
• Permissible activities during the summer
• General information.
• Football summer conditioning.
• Safety exception.
• Individual sport skill instruction.

3
Review of Daily and Weekly Hour Limitations

• In Season (20 Hours)

4
In-Season Hour Limitations

• Countable athletically related activities may
  occur not more than 20 hours per week, with a
  maximum of four hours per day.
• Golf practice rounds.
• A practice round of golf may exceed the four
  hours per day limitation, but the weekly limit of
  20 hours shall remain in effect.
• A practice round played on the day prior to the
  start of a collegiate golf tournament at the
  tournament site shall count as three hours,
  regardless of the actual duration of the round.

5
In-Season Hour Limitations

• A week is defined as any seven consecutive days
  (determined at the institutions discretion).
• Once the institution determines the seven-day
  period that shall constitute its week, it shall
  not change that designation for the remainder of
  the segment.

6
In-Season Hour Limitations

• All competition and any associated athletically
  related activities on the day of competition
  shall count as three hours regardless of the
  actual duration of these activities.
• Practice may not be conducted after competition
  at any time (including vacation periods).
• Exceptions between contests, rounds or events
  during a multiday or multievent competition
  (e.g., doubleheaders in softball or baseball,
  rounds of golf in a multiday tournament).

7
In-Season Hour Limitations

• All countable athletically related activities are
  prohibited during one calendar day per week.
• Exceptions
• During participation in one conference and
  postseason championship
• During participation in postseason certified bowl
  games or National Invitational Tournaments
• During participation in NCAA championships.
• Exception During preseason practice before the
  first contest or first day of classes and during
  vacation periods.

8
Review of Daily and Weekly Hour Limitations

• Out of Season (Eight Hours)

9
Out-of-Season Hour Limitations During the
Academic Year

• In sports other than Division I-A and I-AA
  football, only a student-athletes participation
  in required weight-training, conditioning and
  individual skill instruction requested by the
  student-athlete is permitted.
• A maximum of eight hours per week, of which not
  more than two hours per week may be spent on
  individual skill workouts.
• In Divisions I-A and I-AA football, activities
  outside the playing season shall be conducted
  pursuant to Bylaw 17.11.6.

10
Review of Daily and Weekly Hour Limitations

• Preseason and Academic Year Vacation Periods

11
Preseason and Academic Year Vacation Periods

• Daily and weekly hour limitations do not apply to
  countable athletically related activities
  occurring during preseason practice prior to the
  first day of classes or the first scheduled
  contest, whichever is earlier.

12
Preseason and Academic Year Vacation Periods

• A student-athlete may not participate in any
  countable athletically related activities outside
  the playing season during any institutional
  vacation period and/or summer.
• Strength and conditioning coaches who are not
  countable coaches and who perform such duties on
  a department-wide basis may design and conduct
  specific workout programs for student-athletes,
  provided such workouts are
• Voluntary.
• Conducted at the request of the student-athlete.

13
Review of Daily and Weekly Hour Limitations

• Multisport Student-Athletes

14
Multisport Student-Athletes

• Current Rule The daily and weekly hour
  limitations apply separately to each sport in
  which the student-athlete is a participant.

15
Multisport Student-Athletes - NCAA Proposal No.
2003-16

• Intent To specify that a multisport
  student-athletes participation in countable
  athletically related activities shall not exceed
  a total of 20 hours per week and four hours per
  day.
• Scheduled for second consideration by the NCAA
  Division I Management Council and Board of
  Directors in April 2004.

16
Permissible Activities During the Playing Season
(In Season) Period
17
General Information

• Declaration of the institutions playing season
  in each sport shall be on file in writing in the
  department of athletics prior to the beginning of
  the institutions playing season for that sport.
• Changes in declaration for a particular sport are
  permissible and also shall be filed in writing.

18
General Information

• For all sports other than football and
  basketball, each member institution may divide
  the playing season into not more than two
  distinct segments championship and
  nonchampionship.
• An institution may not declare the summer
  vacation period as its nonchampionship segment.

19
Changes in the 2003-04 NCAA Division I Manual
Regarding Bylaw 17.02.1

• The laundry list of permissible items was removed
  from the Manual (see Proposal 2002-28).
• The intent behind removing the list was to
  simplify the definition.
• The application of the rule has not been changed
  by the deletion of the laundry list.
• Administrative meetings, activities incidental to
  participation (e.g., taping, rehabilitation) and
  voluntary activities continue to be excluded from
  the weekly and daily time limitations.

20
Countable and Noncountable Activities

• Student-athletes may not miss class to attend
  practice.
• Exception when a team is traveling to an
  away-from-home contest, and the practice is in
  conjunction with the contest.
• Practice may not be conducted at any time
  (including vacation periods) following
  competition.
• Exception between contests, rounds or events
  during a multiday or multievent competition
  (e.g., doubleheaders in softball and baseball,
  rounds of golf in a multiday tournament).

21
Permissible Activities Outside the Playing Season
during the Academic Year (Out of Season)
22
Permissible activities outside the playing season
during the academic year (out of season).

• Individual skill instruction (sports other than
  football).
• Participation by student-athletes in individual
  skill-related instruction in sports other than
  football is permitted, provided not more than
  four student-athletes from the same team are
  involved in skill-related instruction with their
  coach(es) at any one time in any facility and the
  student-athletes request the instruction.

23
Permissible activities outside the playing season
during the academic year (out of season).

• Conditioning activities.
• Conditioning drills that simulate game activities
  are permissible, provided no offensive or
  defensive alignments are set up and no equipment
  related to the sport is used.
• In ice hockey, a student-athlete may be involved
  in on-ice conditioning activities, provided no
  equipment other than skates is used.

24
Permissible activities outside the playing season
during the academic year (out of season).

• An ergometer (i.e., a rowing machine) is not
  considered equipment related to the sport of
  rowing. Therefore, in the sport of rowing, any
  use of an ergometer during the required
  conditioning activities that may occur during the
  academic year outside the playing season is not
  limited to the two hours of permissible
  skill-instruction activities. Reference
  10/15/00 official interpretation, Item No.
  9-b-(2)-(a)

25
What is at any one time in any facility?

• Example A coach may not work with four
  student-athletes in Gym A while at the same time
  another coach is working with a different group
  of four student-athletes in Gym B, even if Gym B
  is in a different building.

26
Definition of Voluntary

• In order for any athletically related activity to
  be considered voluntary, all the following
  conditions must be met
• The student-athlete must not be required to
  report back to a coach or other athletics
  department staff member (e.g., strength coach,
  trainer, manager) any information related to the
  activity.
• No athletics department staff member who observes
  the activity (e.g., strength coach, trainer,
  manager) may report back to the student-athletes
  coach any information related to the activity.
• Note Coaches may not observe voluntary
  activities. However, coaching staff members may
  be present during permissible skill-related
  instruction requested by the student-athlete
  pursuant to Bylaw 17.1.5.2.2.

27
Definition of Voluntary

• The activity must be initiated and requested
  solely by the student-athlete. Neither the
  institution nor any athletics department staff
  member may require the student-athlete to
  participate in the activity at any time.
• Athletics department staff members may provide
  information to student-athletes related to
  opportunities for participating in voluntary
  activities (e.g., time when the strength and
  conditioning coach will be on duty in the weight
  room or on the track).
• For students who have initiated a request to
  engage in voluntary activities, the institution
  or an athletics department staff member may
  assign specific times for student-athletes to use
  institutional facilities and inform the
  student-athletes of the time in advance.

28
Definition of Voluntary

• The student-athletes attendance and
  participation in the activity (or lack thereof)
  may not be recorded for the purposes of reporting
  such information to coaching staff members or
  other student-athletes.
• The student-athlete may not be subject to penalty
  if he or she elects not to participate in the
  activity.
• Neither the institution nor any athletics
  department staff member may provide recognition
  or incentives (e.g., awards) to a student-athlete
  based on his or her attendance or performance in
  the activity.

29
Permissible Activities During the Summer
30
General Information

• A student-athlete may not participate in any
  countable athletically related activities outside
  the playing season during any institutional
  vacation period and/or summer.
• Strength and conditioning coaches who are not
  countable coaches and who perform such duties on
  a department-wide basis may design and conduct
  specific workout programs for student-athletes,
  provided such workouts are voluntary and
  conducted at the request of the student-athlete.

31
Football Summer Conditioning Period Divisions
I-A and I-AA

• In Divisions I-A and I-AA football, between the
  start of the summer conditioning and the start of
  preseason practice period, an institution shall
  conduct its out-of-season conditioning period as
  follows
• Institutions shall count back nine weeks from the
  first permissible reporting date for preseason
  practice. During this nine-week period,
  institutions shall designate one week as
  student-athlete discretionary time.

32
Football Summer Conditioning Period Divisions
I-A and I-AA

• During the remaining eight weeks of the summer
  conditioning period
• Nonmandatory weight training and conditioning
  activities may occur.
• Prospects who have signed a National Letter of
  Intent or, for those institutions not using the
  National Letter of Intent, a prospect who has
  signed an institutions written offer for
  admission and/or financial aid may participate.
• No more than eight hours per week.
• Clean apparel permissible.

33
Football Summer Conditioning Period Divisions
I-A and I-AA

• Prior to participation in any summer
  weight-training or conditioning workouts, those
  prospects who have signed the National Letter of
  Intent and student-athletes who will be
  beginning their initial season of eligibility for
  football practice at the institution in the fall
  shall be required to undergo a preparticipation
  medical examination administered and supervised
  by a physician.

34
Safety Exception

• In certain sports, a coach may be present during
  voluntary individual workouts in the
  institutions regular practice facility (without
  the workouts being considered as countable
  athletically related activities) when the
  student-athlete uses equipment in that sport.
  The coach may provide safety or skill instruction
  but cannot conduct the individuals workout.

35
The Safety Exception is Applicable to the
Following Sports
36
Individual Sport Skill Instruction

• In individual sports (except equestrian), a coach
  may participate in individual workout sessions
  with student-athletes from the coachs team
  during the summer, provided the student-athlete
  initiates the request for such assistance.
• It is not permissible for the institution to pay
  fees for the use of a facility.
• Individual sports are listed in Bylaw 17.02.12.2.