NCAA Board of Directors announces updates, permissible start dates

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INDIANAPOLIS – The NCAA Division I Council and Board of Directors took the following actions in regard to the current state of fall and winter sports:

NCAA announced the official start dates for fall and winter sports that are as follows:

  • Men’s and Women’s Basketball: November 25, 2020
  • Women’s Volleyball: January 22, 2021
  • Football: January 23, 2021
  • Cross Country: January 30, 2021

*Note, these are NCAA’s start dates and not Tarleton’s official first game dates.

In addition to the announced permissible start dates for each sport, the NCAA made the following announcements:

  1. Legislative Actions
     
    1. Football Playing and Practice Seasons
      1. At the recommendation of the NCAA Division I Football Oversight Committee, the Council adopted temporary emergency legislation to implement changes to the 2020-21 football playing and practice season framework for Football Bowl Subdivision and NCAA Football Championship Subdivision institutions that postpone competition to the spring. This legislation provides flexibility for practice time periods and permits up to eight regular season contests to occur during a period of not more than 13 weeks, with the last regular season contest occurring not later than April 17, 2021. The playing and practice season framework is intended to ensure that legislative requirements mandating specific days/time off (e.g., discretionary weeks) for student-athletes during a traditional fall season will apply in a comparable manner to a spring season. The effective date of this legislation is September 21, 2020.
         
    2. Playing and Practice Season Recommendations for Fall Sports Other than Football
      1. Based on recommendations from the Division I Student-Athlete Experience Committee, the Council adopted temporary emergency legislation related to a number of key elements of the playing seasons for fall sports other than football. This legislation specifies that: (1) An institution may break up the fall playing season into multiple segments; (2) Practice during finals and the week prior is prohibited if a team is “in season” but not competing; (3) A break must be taken prior to the start of the spring championship segment; (4) An institution may determine the first opportunity to practice in the spring based on the institution’s needs and other factors; (5) The first permissible date of competition is a consistent, established date for each fall sport; (6) An institution may extend the spring championship segment beyond the NCAA championship but no later than the conclusion of the institution’s academic year; and (7) An institution may exempt an alternate postseason opportunity that occurs outside the playing season.
         
    3. Initial Mid-year Enrollee Eligibility
       
      1. The Council adopted temporary emergency legislation to specify that initial midyear enrollee football student-athletes are not eligible for competition in the 2020-21 academic year. Doing so promotes consistency with existing legislation that does not permit a freshman or transfer midyear enrollee to participate in postseason competition that occurs before or during the student-athlete’s initial term of full-time enrollment at the school. This legislation applies to both FBS and FCS institutions and is effective immediately.
         
      2. The Council adopted temporary emergency legislation to specify that initial midyear enrollee student-athletes in fall sports other than football are not eligible for competition in the 2020-21 academic year. In adopting this legislation, the Council noted the importance of maintaining consistent eligibility requirements among all fall sports.
         
    4. Basketball Playing and Practice Season
       
      1. At the recommendation of the Division I Men’s and Women’s Basketball Oversight Committees, the Council took the following legislative actions related to aspects of the 2020-21 men’s and women’s basketball playing and practice seasons. The Council adopted temporary emergency legislation to:
         
        1. Permit an institution to begin a transition from out-of-season activities to on-court preseason practice on September 21, 2020. This may include a maximum of 12 hours per week of required strength and conditioning activities, sport-related meetings and skill instruction, with not more than eight hours spent on skill instruction and requires two days off per week. Additionally, an institution may not begin on-court preseason practice until October 14, 2020.
           
        2. Prohibit institutions from participating in a scrimmage or exhibition contest prior to the first permissible date of competition for the 2020-21 playing season.
           
        3. Change the first permissible contest date to November 25, 2020. In addition, the maximum number of contests in which an institution may participate, which was determined in relation to the first permissible contest date, shall be reduced by four contests.
           
        4. Reduce the minimum number of contests required to satisfy sports-sponsorship requirements by 50% and waive NCAA Bylaw 20.02.5.3-(a) (regular season conference competition minimum requirement).
           
    5. Temporary Recruiting Dead Period
       
      1. The Council adopted emergency legislation to extend the temporary recruiting dead period (as defined in NCAA Bylaw 13.02.5.5) in all sports through January 1, 2021, and preclude complimentary admissions to prospective student-athletes and their coaches during the dead period.  As a result, effective immediately, it is not permissible to provide complimentary admissions to prospective student-athletes who may be visiting an institution “unrelated to recruitment” per 13.7.3.5 (Visit Unrelated to Recruitment) and it is not permissible to provide complimentary admissions to coaches of prospective student-athletes or other individuals associated with prospective student-athletes per Bylaw 13.8.1 (Entertainment Restrictions).

For more information from the NCAA, visit http://www.ncaa.org/about/resources/media-center.


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