Son is a new recruit on campus at a mid major D1 baseball team. He said the coaches can't really talk to them at practice. What are the NCAA rules for weekly practice/workouts? Does the practice schedule change as baseball season becomes closer?

They are allowed to practice with the coaches for a 45 day period in the fall. The timeframe for that is up to the coaches, at my sons school, the timeframe starts next Monday. Until then, they have captains practice where the captains run the practice and the coaches don't show up.

During the winter, they are allowed to coach the players in groups no larger than 4 at a time and each player is only allowed 2 hours per week with the coaches.

Team practices begin 2/1/09 (I believe).

Does the NCAA have rules for the number of practices during a one week span?

The NCAA mandates one day off in every 7 day period...with a theoretical 20 hour per week limit (game days count 3 hours regardless of how long they are there).

Early fall many teams will engage in the individual or small group workouts, which are limited in scope and time per week.

In full fall ball, they have a number of allowable weeks they are allowed to practice, with most teams taking the final week for their intrasquad "world series."

It is my understanding that if the coaches are not on the field coaching an "intrasquad world series" (i.e. the capatains run the squads), those games/days would NOT count against the 45 day limit.

Can anyone confirm?

It is my understanding that the coaching staff cannot be involved even if not on the field.

Where are these rules listed. I hear a lot of "I Think" and "It is My Understanding"? This must be listed in the NCAA Guidelines somewhere.

The coaches cannot be in attendance for the games not to be counted against the 45 day period.

Yes, it must be, but if you can find it on the NCAA's byzantine web site, more power to you. And then you have to reconcile the many seeming contradictions in the info provided by the NCAA.

That's why posts like these are important -- to see how it all plays out in real life, based on our interactions with experienced programs who benefit from having full-time compliance people on the athletic dept. staff. I simply do not have confidence that anyone could just read the rules and have confidence that they were doing the right thing. Yes, that's an indictment of the NCAA, but it's also a warning to anyone who tries to act based on inadequate information or just their own reading of a web site or pamphlet.

plash3,
I don't have quite as jaundiced a view as Midlo Dad, but on the other hand..... I don't have a son playing collegiate baseball.

Anyway, for D1 colleges, the information is provided in Bylaw 17. You really only need to read 17.0, 17.1, and 17.4. In round numbers, about 12 pages! Pay attention to the definitions of countable athletic activities, and voluntary activities. Make sure to read 17.1.6.2.3, which is baseball specific.

Note that some of the rules are not easily enforced. For example, 17.02.13 covers voluntary activities, and says that there can be no penalty for not participating, and the monitoring staff cannot report attendance to the coach. Yet, I guess that if Player A does the voluntary activity and Player B doesn't, the coach will be able to sense that somehow.

And so most players will work on baseball quite a bit more than 20 hours per week, while the college president can sleep well at night, knowing that the players aren't required to do more than 20.
NCAA Division Manuals

Those "voluntary workouts" can be skipped about as easily as you can skip getting your wife a gift on Valentine's Day or your anniversary. You don't want to be the guy who does that.

And some programs are more earnest about compliance than others, to say the least.

At a parent/player meeting at my son's college, the head coach commented that oftentimes, the ones who do not start are those who do everything the coaches require of them, but nothing more.

quote:

Those "voluntary workouts" can be skipped about as easily as you can skip getting your wife a gift on Valentine's Day or your anniversary. You don't want to be the guy who does that.

I agree. Furthermore, I don't think the term "voluntary" ever entered in any discussion at son's school. They were told where to be at what time. End of story. Even returning to the campus two weeks early this year, wayback, jr. contacted the coach for something. Coach asked if he was working out. Even though he told him yes, he was told he should be working out at a specific time and with specific teammates. Sure makes it sound voluntary. lol

Like I told my son..."There is no such thing as voluntary or optional...you go..."