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 Season/ Non- traditional*	Out of Season
Practice, Games, Strength & Conditioning- limited to 20 hours/week (Games count as 3 hours towards this maximum)	Practice, Games, Strength & Conditioning- limited to 20 hours/week (Games count as 3 hours towards this maximum)	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	One day 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.

*In general the Non-Championship/Non-Traditional Seasons restrict activity to 24 days that occur within a period of 45 consecutive calendar days. The Championship/Traditional Season is the season that concludes with the NCAA championships.

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, swimming and diving, tennis and track and field)
• Captains practice that is not required or directed to occur by a member of the coaching staff.

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