Compliance Monthly

December 2010 Volume 2, Number 3

In This Issue Welcome to Compliance Monthly!

 Welcome The final month of the fall semester is here already. All of our fall sports have
 Reading Week wrapped up their seasons. Congratulations to the men’s cross country team for
 Textbooks bringing home another top ten national finish at the NCAA Championships last
month. We would also like to say thank you to our graduating seniors who will soon
 SAOF Deadline
be getting ready to leave Flagstaff and start on a new chapter of their lives.
 CARA Activities
 Recruiting Calendar
Countable Athletically Related Activities: Reading Week & Finals Week
A reminder to all of our teams that Reading week starts next Monday December
12th. Only sports who are “In-season” (20 Hour weeks) may conduct countable
athletically related activities from this day until the first day of class second
semester. Sports who are not in-season may not hold any weight training or
conditioning activities during this period of time.

Textbook Rentals and Sellback

We wanted to pass along a note regarding textbook returns and rentals. If you
Useful Links
have students who took advantage of the textbook rental program through the
NCAA bookstore, the last day to return those books is Friday December 17th. If they have
www.ncaa.org not returned the books by then, the credit card they put down as a deposit will be
charged for the balance of the books cost. Please pass this date along to your
Big Sky student-athletes.
www.bigskyconf.com
SAOF Deadline
Eligibility Center The deadline for student-athletes to submit Student-Athlete Opportunity Fund
www.eligibilitycenter.org
(SAOF) applications is Monday December 13th, this is the first day of finals.
Application forms can be picked up in the Compliance Office, and can be returned to
the Compliance Office or other front office staff. The committee will meet over
winter break and determine who is approved for SAOF money; our goal is to have
checks available by the first week of school second semester.
The SAOF program allows students to apply for extra money for a variety of needs.
This can include a need to purchase warm clothing, reimbursement for emergency
travel, insurance, medical expenses or academic supplies

ASK BEFORE YOU ACT!

 CARA Activities Explained
NCAA bylaws stipulate the maximum amount of time a student-athlete is allowed
to participate in countable athletically related activities (CARAs), which include
DATES TO REMEMBER: practice, meetings and strength workouts. There are also regulations indicating
when a coach can require (non-voluntary) a student-athlete’s participation and
December 13th when a student-athlete may request (voluntary) to workout with the coach.
SAOF Applications Due Additionally, student-athletes can play or practice on their own using the
To the Compliance Office institution’s facilities, however there are rules regulating when a coach can be
present. Confused yet? The rationale behind these playing and practice season rules
December 6th - 12th
is two-fold. First, they are designed to protect student-athlete welfare by limiting
Reading week – CARA Activities the amount of mandatory time spent on athletics, thus preserving that there is time
allowed for in-season sports
only
for the ‘student’ portion of the “student-athlete” concept. You’ve no doubt heard
the popular NCAA slogan: “There are over 400,000 NCAA Student-Athletes, and just
December 13th – 16th about all of us will be going pro, in something other than sports.” This being true,
Finals week – CARA Activities NCAA student-athletes must be afforded time to focus on academics and to
allowed for in-season sports experience life as a traditional student. In addition, the rules are meant to promote
only competitive equity by equalizing practice time among member institutions.
December 17th In-Season and Out-of-Season CARA’ s
In order to clarify how the rules apply in this area, the NCAA has created charts
Graduation Ceremonies &
Textbook return period ends which indicate what activities are or are not considered a CARA. The NCAA defines
CARAs as any required activity with an athletics purpose involving student-athletes
and at the direction of, or supervised by one or more of an institution’s coaching
staff (including strength and conditioning coaches) and must be counted within the
weekly and daily limitations (see NCAA Bylaw 17.02.1). For example, the following
October Meetings: required activities would be considered countable: practice, competition, athletic
meetings, reviewing game tape, weight training and conditioning. Examples of
All Staff Meeting activities that would not be considered countable are: compliance and Champs/Life
December 15th - 10:00AM
Skills meetings or presentations, training room visits, and anything at the request of
the student-athlete (i.e., voluntary activity). When a sport is in its championship
DuBois Center- Meadows Room
segment, student-athletes are permitted to participate in no more than 20 hours
weekly and four hours a day of CARAs (see NCAA Bylaw 17.1.6.1). Additionally,
student-athletes are required to have one day off per week. Outside of the playing
season or championship segment or other specified timeframes (e.g., spring
Contact Compliance: football, fall baseball) coaches, for sports other than football, are permitted a
Scott Renfro maximum of eight hours per week with no more than two hours per week spent on
Assistant AD- Compliance skill-related workouts (see NCAA Bylaw 17.1.6.2). Football is further regulated
928-523-6763 regarding the time of year for practice, film review, conditioning and weight
training are permitted during the academic year and during the summer vacation
[email protected]
period (see NCAA Bylaws 17.9.6). Despite the emphasis that the NCAA has placed on
the importance of playing and practice season rules in order to protect student-
athlete welfare, major infractions involving playing and practice season rules
recently have become more common. This trend also demonstrates that the
www.nauathletics.com violations have not been limited only to the high profile sports. The most prevalent
findings in recent major infractions cases involve coaches exceeding the allowable

ASK BEFORE YOU ACT!

CARA hours and coaches observing student-athletes (and prospects) participating in
athletically related activities during a time when coaches are not permitted to view
such activity.
Monitoring CARA s
It is the responsibility of each institution’s athletics compliance staff to educate
coaches and student-athletes regarding the applicable NCAA rules and instruct these
constituents and how these rules apply. Currently, it seems that most athletic
compliance staffs require coaches to submit logs depicting the number of hours of
countable participation each week by each student-athlete on a regular basis
(e.g., monthly, weekly). On Tuesday, September 28, 2010, the National Association
for Athletics Compliance (NAAC) issued its initial report regarding “Reasonable
Standards” for monitoring three key NCAA compliance areas. According to the
release it is the NAAC’s goal to present these standards as a “framework” for
Division I compliance offices to develop a monitoring system for playing and practice
activities and offer the “flexibility” each institution needs to meet these standards
on its campus. (See “NAAC Announces Compliance Industry Standards” at
http://www.nacda.com/sports/naacc/spec-rel/092810aac.html.)
by Mark P. Jones and Carrie R. McCaw as found in Legal Issues in Collegiate Athletics

Important Dates
December Recruiting Calendar
Volleyball Dec 1st- 5th Contact Period
Dec 6th- 14th Quit Period
Dec 15th- 31st DEAD PERIOD
*Exceptions for NCAA Championship & AVCA
Awards Banquet
Women’s Basketball Dec 1st- 23rd Evaluation Period
Dec 24th- 26th DEAD PERIOD
Dec 27th – 31st Evaluation Period
Men’s Basketball Dec 1st- 23rd Evaluation Period
Dec 24th- 26th DEAD PERIOD
Dec 27th – 31st Evaluation Period
Football Dec 1st- 18th Contact Period
th
Dec 19 Quiet Period
th rd
Dec 20 - Jan 3 DEAD PERIOD
JC Students Planning to Enroll Mid-year:
Dec 12th, 17 – 18th Quiet Period
Dec 13th – 16th DEAD PERIOD
Cross Country/ Track Dec 1st-12th Contact Period
th th
& Field Dec 13 - 16 DEAD PERIOD
th rd
Dec 17 - Jan 3 Quiet Period

ASK BEFORE YOU ACT!