NCAA retools off-season football workout plans

Although the NCAA has had policies in effect for more than 30 years regarding the safety of players from heat-related illnesses, the Association has doubled their efforts to create an off-season conditioning program for football to make student-athlete safety the primary goal. With several heat-related deaths during the summer of 2001 in both the collegiate and professional ranks, the NCAA has appointed an out-of-season conditioning committee to gain further knowledge into concerns related to off-season conditioning.Several steps have already been implemented by the NCAA, such as summer conditioning will start nine weeks prior to the school’s first permissible practice date. Also, all student-athletes – including “walk-ons” – shall participate in a five-day acclimatization period regardless of when they joined the team. The goal of the committee was to avoid a student-athlete