NCAA Division I Football Oversight Committee makes recommendations for preseason practice changes
Some significant changes might be coming to the way coaches operate preseason practices.
On Thursday, the NCAA Division I Football Oversight Committee recommended a number of changes to preseason practices to the Division I Council. Some of the key recommendations include reducing the number of fully padded practices, increasing the acclimatization period, lowering the number of scrimmages and eliminating specific drills.
A release from the NCAA says “the proposed changes were informed by a number of data points that suggest the preseason practice period may lead to a disproportionate amount of concussions and head impact exposure, including, among others, the NCAA injury surveillance program and the NCAA-Department of Defense Concussion Assessment, Research and Education Consortium.”
Below are the recommendations the oversight committee has made:
- Prohibiting drills that create unneeded contact, particularly straight-line contact that is not common to the game.
- Reducing the maximum number of contact practices from 21 to 18, requiring at least seven helmet-only days (with optional spider pads) and restricting full-pads days to nine.
- Increasing the acclimatization period from five to seven days.
- Additional limits on full-contact practices, including no more than two consecutive full-contact practices, a total of no more than 75 minutes of full contact within any practice session and no more than two scrimmages in the preseason.
The recommendations will be considered at a meeting on May 19.