Playing and Practice Season
IN-SEASON
During season, practice/competition is limited to a maximum of 4 hours a day, 20 hours a week. (Golf: a practice round of golf may exceed the 4 hour daily limitation, but the 20 hour a week rule is still in effect). In addition, one day off a week which is free from all countable athletic activities, is mandatory. A travel day may be used as the official day off. Please note: any competition counts as 3 hours toward the maximum of 20.
Activities Considered as Countable Athletic Activities:
Practice: Practice is any meeting, activity or instruction involving sports-related information and having an athletics purpose, held for one or more student-athletes at the direction of, or supervised by, any member or members of an institution's coaching staff.
Activities Considered as Practice: Practice shall be considered to have occurred if one or more coaches and one or more student-athletes engage in any of the following activities:
- Team conditioning or physical-fitness activities.
- Field, floor or on-court activity.
- Setting up offensive or defensive alignments.
- Chalk talk.
- Lecture on or discussion of strategy relating to the sport.
- Activities utilizing equipment relating to the sport.
- Discussions or review of game films, motion pictures or videotapes relating to the sport.
- Activities conducted under the guise of physical education class work (i.e. any class composed of or including primarily members of an intercollegiate team on a required attendance basis or where the class utilizes equipment for the sport).
- Required weight-training and conditioning activities held at the direction of or supervised by an institutional staff member.
- Participation in a physical-fitness class conducted by a member of the athletics staff.
- Film or videotape reviews of athletic practices or contests required, supervised or monitored by institutional staff members.
- Required participation in camps, clinics or workshops.
- Meetings initiated by coaches or other institutional staff members on athletically related matters.
- Individual workouts required or supervised by a member of the coaching staff.
- On-court or on-field activities called by any member or members of a team and confined primarily to members of that team that are considered as requisite for participation in that sport (i.e. captain's practices).
Activities Not Considered as Countable Athletic Activities:
The following are considered non-countable athletically related activities and are not counted in the weekly or daily time limitations:
- Training table or competition related meals.
- Physical rehabilitation.
- Dressing, showering or taping.
- Athletics department academic study hall or tutoring sessions.
- Meetings with coaches on non-athletic matters.
- Travel to and from practice and competition.
- Medical examinations or treatments.
- Participation in regular physical education classes, with or without credit, that are listed in the institution's catalog and open to all students.
- Voluntary individual workouts, provided these workouts are not required or supervised by coaching staff members, except that such activities may be monitored for safety purposes by the institution's strength and conditioning personnel.
- Individual consultation with a coaching staff member initiated voluntarily by a student-athlete, provided the coach and the student-athlete do not engage in athletically related activities.
- Use of an institution's athletics facilities by student-athletes, provided the activities are not supervised by or held at the direction of any member of an institution's coaching staff. In the event that use of an institution's facilities is requested by a team composed partly of enrolled student-athletes and partly of individuals not otherwise affiliated with the institution, use of the facilities shall be consistent with policies established for outside groups generally.
- Involvement of an institution's strength and conditioning staff with enrolled student-athletes either in a supervisory capacity for the institution's weight-training facilities or assisting in conditioning programs. Such assistance may be provided only if the strength and conditioning staff performs its duties on a department-wide basis.
Safety Exceptions: A coach may be present during voluntary individual workouts in the institution's regular practice facility (without the workouts being considered as countable athletically related activities) in the following situations, and the coach may spot or provide safety or skill instructions but cannot conduct the individual's workouts:
- Swimming and Diving - when the student-athlete is engaged in swimming and diving,
- Track and Field - when the student-athlete is engaged in field events,
- Water Polo - when the student-athlete is engaged in water polo.
OFF-SEASON
A student-athlete's involvement in the activities listed below shall be limited to a maximum of eight hours a week.
- Required weight-training and conditioning activities held at the direction of or supervised by an institutional staff member.
- In all sports other than football, two hours a week may be utilized as individual skill-related instruction at the request of the student-athlete. No more than four student-athletes may be involved at one time.
Off Season practice shall not be considered to have occurred in the following activities:
- Practice for any established event, participation in which is not prohibited by the NCAA, provided such practice is limited to students eligible for that event.
- A single game or contest played before the end of the NCAA championship between undergraduate student-athletes who are or were members of the institution's squad and for which there is no organized practice (i.e. seniors vs. next year's squad).
- Voluntary participation by student-athletes in weight-training or conditioning programs utilizing the institution's facilities outside the institution's established playing season in a sport, provided such activities are supervised only by members of the institution's strength and conditioning staff or, in the sport of Division I-A Football, athletics trainers, who perform such duties on a department-wide basis.
- Use of an institution's athletics facilities by student-athletes, provided the activity is not supervised by or held at the direction of any member of the institution's coaching staff.
- Use of an institution's athletics facilities by a group composed partly of enrolled student-athletes and partly of individuals not otherwise affiliated with the institution, provided the activity is not supervised by or held at the direction of any member of the institution's coaching staff, and provided the use of the facilities is consistent with policies established for outside groups, in general.
Special Assistance Fund For Student-Athletes
The NCAA has provided funds to assist student-athletes with special financial needs. In order to be eligible for this program, the student-athlete must either be a PELL grant recipient or have unmet financial needs beyond the value of a full grant-in-aid, as demonstrated by a needs analysis. In order to determine a student-athlete's financial needs, financial aid forms must be filed annually.
Permissible Uses:
- Medical Expenses (except those covered by insurance, either institutional or personal).
- Hearing aids.
- Vision Therapy (i.e. contact lenses, eyeglasses).
- Off-campus psychological counseling.
- Travel expenses for parents or student-athletes related to family emergencies. The Athletics Department will assist in making these arrangements.
- Purchase of expendable academic course supplies (i.e. notebooks, pens) and rental of non-expendable supplies (i.e. computer equipment, cameras) that are required for all students enrolled in the course.
- Articles of clothing and shoes, up to $500.00.
Foreign and Domestic Student-Athletes not Receiving Pell Grants
- The awarding institution must certify in writing through the signature of the Director of Financial Assistance that the student-athlete has unmet financial needs beyond the value of a full grant-in-aid, as certified by the International Student Advisor.
- The written certification must be submitted with the application form to the conference office, and a copy also must be on file in the office of the Director of Athletics.
- Student-athletes who do not receive Pell Grants are eligible for the fund only if they are receiving full grants-in-aid from their institutions.
See the Associate Athletics Director for Compliance for appropriate forms to apply for the fund.
Summer League Competition
When competing in a summer league, student-athletes should notify and obtain approval from their coaches and from the Director of Compliance. If a student-athlete does not obtain approval, he/she may jeopardize future athletic eligibility.
GUIDELINES FOR ALL SPORTS EXCEPT BASEBALL AND BASKETBALL:
- Competition must be during Villanova University's official summer vacation.
- Notify your coach before competing.
- Obtain permission from the Associate Athletics Director for Compliance before competing.
GUIDELINES FOR BASEBALL AND BASKETBALL:
- Competition must be between June 15th and August 31st.
- Must be an NCAA sanctioned league.
- Notify your coach before competing.
- Obtain permission from the Associate Athletics Director for Compliance before competing. Basketball players must have written permission.
- You may play on one team in one league only.
Transferring
Should you decide to transfer to another institution, the following NCAA regulations will apply:
- Permission - Contact the school(s) you are considering. Before that coach may speak to you regarding his/her interest in your transfer, the Athletics Director at that institution must seek written permission from Villanova University to speak to you. The contact person on our campus is the Associate Athletics Director for Compliance. If permission is granted, the transfer institution may begin the recruiting process with you. If permission is denied, no recruiting activities may take place. Also, if permission is denied, you may request a hearing to challenge the denial.
- Residency Requirement - NCAA regulations require that a transfer student-athlete from one four-year institution to another be a matriculating student for two semesters (excluding summer school) before becoming eligible for competition. A waiver of this requirement is available. If the original institution grants the waiver, the student may transfer and be eligible for competition immediately. It is the prerogative of the original institution to waive the requirement.
If you are contemplating a transfer, see John Robinson for further information.
