Athletics Veritas is a weekly series aimed at helping higher education executives, faculty, and other stakeholders stay tuned in on trending national issues impacting college athletics, especially NCAA Division I. Athletics Veritas is created by senior DI athletic administrators around the nation.
Term-in-Ology: Day Off for Civic Duty
In Fall 2020, the NCAA adopted a rule that prohibited all countable athletically-related activities on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November. For this year, it’s this coming Tuesday -- November 2. 2021. This new dedicated day for civic duty is designed to provide more opportunities for student-athletes to participate in civic engagement (e.g., voting, volunteering, community service).
By requiring an annual day-off from countable athletically-related activities each year, student-athletes will have focused time to civically engage, including time to vote in presidential and some congressional, state and local elections.
In conjunction with the new rule, the NCAA Division I Student-Athlete Advisory Committee provides the membership with educational tools that may be used on this day and throughout the academic year. The proposal would not impact competitive or recruiting equity, since the legislation would impact all institutions in the same manner.
For fall sports that are in season, teams often have to do some slight modifications to their weekly schedule and move an off-day from a Sunday or Monday, for example, to Tuesday.
Some fall sports are moving in to their post-season in the coming days. With that in mind, the NCAA recently approved a blanket waiver to permit student-athletes to engage in countable athletically related activities this Tuesday November 2, 2021, while participating in postseason practice and competition. The stipulations of the blanket waiver require:
1. Postseason practice or competition is scheduled to occur during the declared week that includes November, 2, 2021;
2. The institution must provide student-athletes with an additional day during the 2021-22 academic year dedicated to civic engagement;
3. The institution and conference must provide education or programming related to civic engagement to student-athletes on November 2, 2021; and
4. If student-athletes are participating in a postseason conference championship practice or competition on November 2, 2021, the conference must provide general education or programming related to civic engagement to the championship attendees (e.g., participants, fans, officials).
Other fall sports (like football) not in postseason yet may still seek individual waivers to permit their student-athlete to participate in countable athletically related activity this coming Tuesday but those individual waivers may face a higher bar than the blanket waiver criteria.
Athletics Veritas is presented for information purposes only and should not be considered advice or counsel on NCAA compliance matters. For guidance on NCAA rules and processes, always consult your university’s athletics compliance office, conference office, and/or the NCAA.
