Practice & Playing Season
All student-athletes must receive approval from the Athletic Compliance Office prior to participating in any outside competition as a member of an outside team (including a summer league team) or as an individual. If you wish to compete on an outside team, please complete the Outside Competition Workflow in Teamworks and submit it at least 7 days before you plan on competing.
In limited circumstances, student-athletes may accept prize money based on their place, finish, or performance. If you accept any prize money, you must complete the Student-Athlete Prize Acceptance Workflow in Teamworks. It is important to remember that the total amount of prize money you accept during the year may not exceed your costs to compete. You should always keep your receipts in case you need to prove this.
Countable Athletically Related Activities
Countable athletically related activities (CARA) include any required activity with an athletics purpose involving student-athletes and at the direction of, or supervised by, one or more of an institution’s coaching staff (including strength and conditioning coaches). A student-athlete's participation in countable athletically related activities (CARA) shall be limited to the following daily and weekly limitations:
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Voluntary, up to 6 Hours per week
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Strength & Conditioning: 4 Hours per week
Season Limit: 48 Hours of total activity
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Maximum of 4 of the allowable 6 hours can be coach directed skill instruction*
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At least 1 day off per week
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At least 2 days off per week
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At least 2 days off per week
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*Football is limited to 2 hours of film review and walk-throughs per week while out of season. The remaining time can be used for strength and conditioning activities.
Competition Day -- All competition and any associated athletically related activities on the day of competition (e.g., pre-game warm-ups) shall count as three (3) hours regardless of the actual duration of these activities. Countable athletically related activities may not be conducted at any time following competition, except between contests, rounds or events (e.g., double-headers in baseball).
Below are partial lists of common activities that count and do not count against daily and weekly time limits:
Athletically Related Activities
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Athletically Related Activities
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Practices and any associated, required warm-up and cool-down activities.
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Athletics meetings with a coach initiated or required by a coach (e.g. end of season individual meetings).
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Meetings with a coach initiated by the student-athlete (as long as no countable activities occur).
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Competition (and associated activities, regardless of their length, count as three hours. [Note: no countable athletically related activities may occur after the competition]
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Drug/alcohol educational meetings or CHAMPS/Life Skills meetings.
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Study hall, tutoring, or academic meetings.
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Setting up offensive and defensive alignments.
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Student-athlete advisory committee (SAAC)/ Captain’s Council meetings.
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On-field activities called by any member of the team at the direction of a member of the coaching staff where attendance is taken and reported back to the coaching staff.
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Voluntary weight training not conducted/directed by a coaching staff member.
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Required weight-training and conditioning activities.
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Voluntary sport-related activities (e.g., Captain’s Practices not at the direction of the coach, initiated by student-athletes, no attendance taken, no coach present, etc.).
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Required participation in camps/clinics.
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Traveling to and from competition and practice sites (as long as no countable activities occur).
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Participation outside of the regular season in individual skill-related instructional activities with a member of the coaching staff or under the direction of the coaching staff.
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Training room activities (e.g., treatment, taping), rehabilitation activities and medical examinations.
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Coach required or initiated discussion or review of game films.
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Recruiting activities (e.g., student host).
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Participation in physical activity class for student-athletes only and taught by a member of the athletics staff (e.g., coach).
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Attending banquets (e.g., awards or postseason banquets).
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All continuous activity from the time the team is required to report until they are released must count as CARA.
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Fundraising activities or public relations/promotional activities and community service projects.
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Voluntary Activity: is one that is initiated and requested solely by the student-athlete. An activity is not voluntary if a coach directs the activity through instructions to captains or others, attendance is taken, participation is recorded, information about the activity is required to be reported back to the coach or other staff member (including strength and conditioning coaches), or penalties or incentives are provided (by a coach or teammate) for participation in the activity. Further, the culture of the team, whether dictated by coaches, captains, or other team members, cannot progress to the point that “voluntary” activities are in fact required given fear of penalty.
Safety Exception -- A coach may be present during voluntary activities (noncountable) in a practice facility when students are using equipment in the sports of equestrian, fencing, gymnastics, rowing, swimming/diving, track (field events only) and wrestling.
