NCAA Rules Regarding Practice

NCAA Rules Pertaining to Countable Athletically Related Activity

NCAA rules regulate the number of hours a student-athlete can participate in countable athletically related activity (CARA) per week and per day. The amount of CARA that a student-athlete is allowed to participate in varies from championship season to out of season to non-championship season. Coaches are required to track CARA Monday to Sunday each week and report those hours to the Office of Compliance every Monday. Below is a review of the NCAA rules pertaining to CARA.

What is countable athletically related activity (CARA)?

CARA is any required activity with an athletics purpose, involving student-athletes and at the direction of, or supervised by, any member or members of an institution's coaching staff.

What are the limitations on CARA?

Championship Season/ Traditional	Non-Championship Segment	Out of Season
Practice, Games, Strength & Conditioning- limited to 20 hours/week	Practice, Games, Strength & Conditioning- limited to 15 hours/week	No competition 8 hours/week for weight training, individual workouts/ team activities and conditioning supervised by staff
Maximum 4 hours/day	Maximum 4 hours/day	No more than 2 of the 8 hours can be used for individual workouts/team activities
One day off/week	Two days off/week	Two days off/week
Student-athlete cannot miss class for practice	Student-athlete cannot miss class for practice	Student-athlete cannot miss class for practice
	Student-athlete cannot miss class time for competition in team sports.

What are some examples of CARA?

Competition (always counts as 3 hours)
Individual workouts (as required or supervised by a member of the coaching staff)
Participation of student-athletes in permissible tryouts involving prospective student-athletes
Required weight training and conditioning activities held at the direction of or supervised by an institutional staff member
Chalk talk (as required or supervised by a member of the coaching staff)
Visiting the competition site
Voluntary skill instruction at the request of the student-athlete
Captains practice that was required by a member of the coaching staff

What are some examples of activities that would NOT be considered CARA?

Study hall
Compliance meetings
Attendance at an awards or celebratory banquet
Voluntary weight training and conditioning activities monitored by the institution's strength and conditioning coach (a student-athlete's attendance at such an activity cannot be recorded for purposes of reporting their attendance back to a coach)
Fundraising activities
Community engagement
Student-athlete requested individual summer workout session with a member of the coaching staff (in golf and track & field)
Captains practice that is not required or directed to occur by a member of the coaching staff