Playing and Practice Seasons Division III Bylaw 17

2. Playing and Practice Seasons Division III Bylaw 17 Corey Berg and Stephanie Grace

3. Goals • Define a playing and practice season. • Discuss the playing and practice seasons for each of our student-athletes. • Discuss voluntary athletically related activities.

4. Defining the Playing Season • The period of time between the date of an institution’s first officially recognized practice session and the date of the institution’s last practice session or date of competition, whichever occurs later.  • Athletically related activities may occur during the playing season.

6. Calculating a Start Date for Football

7. New Legislation  17.10.2.1 First Practice Date. A member institution shall not commence official preseason football practice sessions for the varsity, junior varsity or freshman team earlier than 23 days before its first scheduled contest.

8. Calculating a Start Date for Other Sports

9. Fall Preseason Practice Date Formula • A unit is simply a counting device. The number of units assigned to a particular day doesn't dictate how you conduct practice. • There are no "one-a-days" and "two-a-days." A team may practice however many or few times per day as is desired. • Sundays do not get included in the counting formula, but a team can still practice on Sundays. • Division III Bylaw 17.02.12.1

10. How To Count • SkipSundays when counting the units. • Skipany preseason day when the dorms are closed, you cannot be on campus and no practice takes place. • First 6 Units: Countone unit each on the six calendar days that lead up to the first regular scheduled contest (skip Sundays). • Do not count back from a preseason scrimmage/exhibition. • Count starting from your actual first contest, not the first permissible date. • Remaining 10 Units: • Assign one unit to each day on or after the first day of classes. • Assign two units to each day before the first day of classes. • Stop when the counting adds up to 16 units. This is the start day. • Bylaw 17.02.12.1

11. Declaration of Playing Season Activity  • Declare the preseason for NCAA University women's volleyball. • First date of classes - August 21. • First contest – August 31. • When is the first permissible practice date?

12. Counting a Start Date

13. Playing and Practice Season Calculator Link: web1.ncaa.org/compliance/exec/startdate

14. The Counting is Over

15. Defining Weeks of a Season

16. Defining Weeks of a Season • Any consecutive 7-day period, regardless of the day that starts the 7-day period. • Practice or competition during any part of a week is counted as a full week. • A day off must take place at least one day per week.

17. Defining Weeks of a Season (con’t) • Each team must take a day off at least one calendar day per week. There are a few exceptions: • Participation during NCAA Championships; • Participation between academic terms when classes are not in session; • Preseason practice when classes are not in session; and • During a week that falls during any part of the official vacation period if no classes are in session during any part of the week.

18. Defining Weeks of a Season(con’t) • The day off must be the same day for the entire team, except for indoor and outdoor track and field, and swimming and diving.  In those sports, the team is able to have different days off for each member of the team. • Multisport SAs must take a day off at least one day per week regardless of how many teams they are on.

19. Parts of a Playing Season • Any practice or competition that takes place during the institution's published vacation or holiday period must count as part of the season. • The weeks of the season must be consecutive.  An institution is not allowed to redefine its week or take a week off unless: • A full week is taken off that includes at least one day of an official vacation or final exam period; or • It is the time between segments or periods of the season. 

20. Segments and Periodsof a Season

21. Parts of a Playing Season • For most fall and spring sports, the playing season is also broken into segments. • Traditional—concludes with the NCAA championship. • Nontraditional—the remainder of the season.

22. Parts of a Playing Season (con’t) • Golf, rowing and tennis have playing periods instead of segments. • Sports with a winter championship do not have segments. • The total number of weeks for both segments/periods cannot exceed the maximum number of weeks in the season. Bylaw 17.1.2

23. Make Up of the Nontraditional SegmentBaseball, Field Hockey, Lacrosse, Soccer, Softball & Volleyball • Nontraditional segment = 16 total days of participation, which must take place within a maximum of five consecutive weeks. • No more than four days of participation in any one week. • No class time may be missed for practice or competition. • One day of competition may be counted as one of the 16 total days. 

24. Make Up of the Nontraditional Segment Baseball, Field Hockey, Lacrosse, Soccer, Softball & Volleyball (con’t) • On the one nontraditional date of competition, a maximum of eight hours of athletically related activity may take place. The eight hours includes varsity, JV and freshman competition combined. • Within that eight-hour limit, there are sport-specific limits. • The eight-hour limit trumps the sport-specific limits. Bylaw 17.1.4.4

25. Sample Nontraditional Segment

26. So Close!

27. Voluntary Athletically Related Activities • Student-athletes and coaching staff may not engage in athletically related activities outside the declared playing season.  • What does it mean to be volun-TARY, and not volun-TOLD? • No reporting back to coaching staff. • Must be initiated only by the student-athlete. • No recording attendance. • No penalties or incentives based on participation.

28. Let's Discuss • Using an app (like Nike Run Club) to track and share individual workouts. • Student-athlete working with the school's strength & conditioning coach. • Coach suggesting books to read and holding meetings to discuss them.

29. Tracking Voluntary Athletically Related Activities • Cannot post photos of student-athletes engaged in out-of-season athletically related activities. • Cannot like, republish, retweet, etc. photos of student-athletes engaged in out-of-season athletically related activities.

30. Voluntary Athletically Related Activities (con’t) • Student-athletes can post photos of their out-of-season activities/workouts on their personal accounts as long as not being done at the direction of the athletics staff.

31. We Made It!

32. Questions?