LOS ANGELES – Policies regarding football practice contact and recovery periods announced Friday by the Pac-12 Conference go beyond NCAA limitations but will not change the status quo very much, league coaches said.
Specific changes to the contact rules include limiting teams to two full-contact practices per week during the regular season, limiting the contact during two-a-days during preseason and limiting the number of full-contact practices per week in the spring to two.
The new Pac-12 policy was created with input from the coaches, medical practitioners, athletic directors and players and is expected to be approved next month by the conference's athletic directors and put into place for the upcoming season.
"I think the new practice guidelines are a real good idea," said Oregon State coach Mike Riley, the dean of Pac-12 coaches in his 13th year. "I'm proud that our conference took the lead in that and our coaches were all very, very involved in input. I appreciate the league being inclusive with that.
"I think we're looking at every way possible to maintain our ability to get ready for a ballgame and look at avenues that might be better for the players regarding safety and the number of hits they actually take.
"I think everybody is aware of that anyway, but to have some guidelines with it and to bring it up once again for discussion, that's always a good idea."
During the regular season, teams can only have two full-contact practices per week. During the preseason, teams having two-a-day practices can only have full contact in one of the two practices, and amount of full contact allowed in previous or following practices may be limited by how much occurred in the two-a-day. During spring practice, which allows has eight full contact sessions, only two may come in a given week.
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Arizona coach Rich Rodriguez said the guidelines won't affect coach's schedules much.
"I think our league and about every coach in the country has gone to those guidelines, anyway, if not even less contact than that," Rodriguez said. "As a coach, you have to be concerned about the welfare of your team and you know your team and you know how beat up you are and what you have to do and how hard you have to work on hitting and what you have to do."
The Pac-12's new policy is part of a larger focus – the Student-Athlete Health Initiative – by the league that was introduced at the league's meetings in June.
The Pac-12 will soon name a board that will set priorities and develop research funding. The league will convene a summit in early 2014 where doctors and researchers share research and joint initiatives and commit $3.5M in research grants for projects at Pac-12 institutions aimed at improving student-athlete health and well-being.
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