NCAA Increases Virtual Contact Time Between Staff & Players

The NCAA announced, starting Monday, they’ve doubled the virtual contact between coaching staffs and players.

The NCAA announced it is doubling the amount of virtual contact that coaching staff members can have with players.

Starting Monday, the NCAA Division I Council Coordination Committee will be allowing coaching staffs eight hours per week of virtual nonphysical countable activities such as film review, chalk talks and team meetings. This is an increase of the four hours per week they’ve been allowed this spring during the COVID-19 virus world health epidemic. This new eight-hour practice will be allowed until at least until the end of May.

All required physical athletics activities by the coaching or training staff continue to be prohibited due to the legislated requirement that a sports-safety certified staff member be present during such activities. Teams in all sports also are prohibited from requiring any activities beginning one week before the start of a school’s final examination period for the Spring 2020 academic term through the conclusion of the final examination period for the term.

“This change not only allows coaches to continue to educate their student-athletes but also fosters the connectivity that comes with team-based activities,” said NCAA Division I Council Coordination Committee chair M. Grace Calhoun, who is also the current athletics director at Penn. “Regular, individual check-ins between student-athletes and coaches remain permissible and are encouraged.”

In a media teleconference on March 27, Illinois head football coach Lovie Smith confirmed his staff was meeting with players two days a week for a total of two hours to discuss individual workout plans, playbook changes and various other topics involved with the coronavirus within team meetings.

"When you say adapting, this is what we do. Each day we will watch video, if we were in our office we'd be watching video daily and moving our (recruiting) board around,” Smith said on March 27. “Looking at finding new guys. Our recruiting plan that we had in place, none of that has changed except for we can't see guys. We can't get them on campus so we have to find other ways. Getting them video, showing them Champaign, the University of Illinois, our coaches, you know just everything about our program. Besides that, it's kind of business as usual for us. We're just all doing it remotely from different places. There's communication. We're recruiting. There's a recruiting meeting five days a week still."