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NCAA Division I Football Oversight Committee makes recommendations for preseason practice changes
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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.
Dustin grew up in the heart of Big Ten country and has been in sports media since 2010. He has been covering Big Ten football since 2014. You can follow him on Twitter: @SchutteCFB