NCAA rule ending two-a-days forcing teams to adjust
The two-a-day football practices that coaches once used to toughen up their teams and cram for the start of the season are going the way of tear-away jerseys and the wishbone formation.
As part of its efforts to increase safety, the NCAA approved a plan this year that prevents teams from holding multiple practices with contact in a single day.
The move has forced plenty of schools to alter their practice calendar, with many teams opening their preseason as early as this week. Officials don’t mind if it causes a few logistical headaches as long as it reduces the head injuries that had become all too common this time of year.
According to the NCAA’s Sport Science Institute, 58 percent of the football practice concussions that occur over the course of a year happen during the preseason. Brian Hainline, the NCAA’s chief medical officer, says August also is a peak month for catastrophic injuries resulting from conditioning rather than contact, such as heatstroke and cardiac arrest.
“There was just something about that month really stood out,” Hainline said. “We couldn’t say with statistical certainty if this was because of the two-a-days, but there was enough consensus in the room and enough preliminary data that it looked like it was because of the two-a-days.”
Some coaches believe the benefits could go beyond reducing concussions.
“I don’t think you’re going to have the number of injuries that you had, especially the soft tissue injuries — hamstring pulls, quad pulls, groin pulls,” Louisiana Tech coach Skip Holtz said.
Teams still can hold two practices on a given day, but one of those practices can only be a “walkthrough” that includes no contact, helmets, pads or conditioning activities. Three hours of recovery are required between a practice and a walkthrough, though meetings can be held during that period.
“It just makes all the sense in the world,” Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh said.
Most programs were trending away from two-a-day practices long before this decision.
More than three-quarters of the 89 Football Bowl Subdivision teams that responded to an Associated Press survey on the subject said they conducted multiple practices on certain days last year. But in the overwhelming majority of cases, teams made sure one of those workouts had limited or no contact.
Those teams won’t have to change their approach too much.
Pac-12 will test shorter halftime, reduced timeouts
LOS ANGELES » The Pac-12 will shorten halftime and reduce the number of commercial breaks during its non-conference schedule this season as part of a trial program to reduce the length of its football games.
Halftime will be 15 minutes long, cut down from the usual 20-minute break. The number of commercial breaks will be reduced and they will be shorter in length, Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott said Wednesday.
Scott announced the initiative as the Pac-12 kicked off its media days in Hollywood. The experiment is intended to reduce ballooning game times in an era of up-tempo offenses running more plays and the increased scoring that comes with it.