PSAC Announces Preseason Football Practice Policies
LOCK HAVEN, Pa. --- The Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) Board of Directors adopted new preseason football practice policies to protect the health and safety of student-athletes while providing the opportunity to prepare them for the upcoming football season. The PSAC Athletics Administrators recommended the adjustments with feedback from the league’s head football coaches. The new policies are effective for the 2021 preseason.
The changes mirror policies adopted by NCAA Division I members in mid-May based upon recommendations from the Division I Football Oversight Committee. The Division I modification was based on data from the NCAA injury surveillance program and the NCAA-Department of Defense Concussion Assessment, Research and Education Consortium.
Last week, the Division II Presidents Council voted to prohibit certain athletic activities during football practices, such as drills that encourage or create straight-line contact (Oklahoma Drill, Bull in the Ring). Division II membership will not take up consideration of the preseason practice changes until it meets in Convention in January 2022.
“We felt the need to take action now based upon what we were seeing Division I doing with these new preseason changes,” explains Steve Murray, Commissioner of the PSAC. “If the changes to practice formats are good for Division I athletes, then they are good for PSAC athletes. The health and safety of our student-athletes is always our primary focus”.
In addition to the NCAA ban on certain drills, the changes include the acclimatization period extended from five to seven days, a minimum of seven practices with only helmets, a maximum of nine practices in full pads, limitations of full contact practices to not more than two consecutive days in a row and full-contact limited to no more than 75 minutes in any practice. Also, teams are limited to only two scrimmages in the preseason.
“Our coaches felt that the changes being proposed would not significantly impact the way they manage their practice regime prior to their first contest this Fall and thus it made sense to them that for safety’s sake we should do this now”, concluded Murray.
The first permissible date for Division II football practice this Fall is Monday, August 9 or 10 days prior to the start of classes. The first permissible contests in Division II can be played on Thursday, September 2.
ABOUT THE PSAC
Headquartered in Lock Haven, Pennsylvania, the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference is an NCAA Division II Conference comprised of 18 institutions in Pennsylvania and West Virginia. The member institutions are Bloomsburg University, California University of Pennsylvania, Clarion University, East Stroudsburg University, Edinboro University, Gannon University, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Kutztown University, Lock Haven University, Mansfield University, Mercyhurst University, Millersville University, The University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown, Seton Hill University, Shepherd University, Shippensburg University, Slippery Rock University and West Chester University.