The University of Akron Athletics
Countable Athletically Related Activities [CARA]
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Countable athletically related activities (CARA) are any required activities with an athletics purpose that involves student-athletes and occurs at the direction of, or is supervised by, one or more of an institution's coaching staff, including strength and conditioning coaches. Below are several examples of what is countable and not countable toward a student-athlete's CARA limits.
NCAA regulations limit the amount of time that coaches can require a student-athlete to be involved in CARA each week. These limitations are different depending on whether a team is in-season or out-of-season. The distinctions between what is permissible in-season versus out-of-season is as follows:
Voluntary Activities
Student-athletes are permitted to participate in voluntary activities as much as they would like. For an activity to be considered voluntary, the following must be satisfied:
- The student-athlete must not be required to report back to a coach or other athletics department staff member any information related to the activity;
- Staff members who observe the activity (i.e., strength coaches) may not report back to the student-athletes' coach any information related to the activity - coaches may not observe voluntary activities (except for safety exception sports);
- The activity must be initiated and requested solely by the student-athlete;
- Attendance and participation (or lack thereof) may not be recorded for the purposes of reporting such information to coaching staff members; and
- Student-athletes may not be subjected to a penalty if they choose not to participate in the activity or rewarded if they do choose to participate.
Unattached Competition
A student-athlete in any sport other than basketball who participates during the academic year as a member of any outside team in any non collegiate, amateur competition becomes ineligible for intercollegiate competition UNLESS eligibility is restored by the Committee of Student-Athlete Reinstatement. A student-athlete is permitted to practice on such a team.
Competition as Individual/Not representing institution
It is permissible for a student-athlete to participate in outside competition as an individual during the academic year in the student-athlete's sport, as long as the student-athlete represents only himself or herself in the competition and does not engage in such competition as a member of or receive expenses from an outside team.
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