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Heather Dinich, ESPN senior writer
The NCAA Division I Council on Tuesday approved a rule change that will allow the entire football staff to coach during practices and games, partially eliminating the NCAA's previous limit on a maximum of 11 “countable” coaches.
The decision will take effect immediately following the conclusion of conference play on Wednesday, according to the NCAA.
“Going forward, any staff member may provide technical and tactical instruction to student-athletes during practice and competition,” the NCAA said.
The new rules state that at the FBS level, only 10 assistants and head coaches are allowed to recruit off-campus. National Military Academy allows an additional four off-campus recruiters. Only staff members who “regularly engage in on-campus coaching activities with student-athletes” count as off-campus recruiters.
According to the NCAA, FBS programs can hire up to four graduate student coaches and up to five strength and conditioning coaches. The limit on student assistant coaches will be the same as the number of off-campus recruiters allowed in a football program.
“NCAA members continue to work to modernize support for student-athletes, and removing restrictions on football skills instruction will provide more resources for student-athletes to reach their full potential on the field,” said Josh Whitman, chair of the council and athletic director at the University of Illinois, in a statement from the NCAA. “At the same time, the council determined that maintaining the recruiting personnel limits will allow us to balance competitiveness in recruiting and localize decision-making about how best to maximize support for student-athletes.”
The rule is intended to address the large staffs that some big programs employ with vague titles such as “quality control” coaches, analysts, directors of player personnel and directors of player development.
Instead of a gray area that was a compliance nightmare for many schools, now staff will be allowed to coach directly. The rule does not authorize a head coach to hire 12 new assistants. Rather, it is meant to modernize the rule to allow for a scenario in which a fired head coach is rehired by other staff members under the guise of a “quality control” coach who may have previously ignored the rule and coached in a different way.
“Instead of micromanaging or having people try to exploit it, let's allow it. There's the law of diminishing returns. You can't have 100 coaches,” one source said.
While some have expressed concerns about super-sizing coaching staff, the number of coaches wearing headsets is not expected to change on match days, and there was a view within the football oversight committee that it was unrealistic to have staff coach during the week but not provide any instruction or encouragement on match days.
Craig Ball, executive director of the American Football Coaches Association, told ESPN in May that the rule was passed unanimously by the Football Oversight Committee. Ball said coaches in the American Football Coaches Association also unanimously supported the rule.
“This gives young coaches, young people in our profession, an opportunity to coach that right now they're limited in,” he said. “It's a common sense approach. We're in a position right now where players are being paid, so why worry about an assistant quarterbacks coach? We have much more important issues to deal with, which is the challenges of college football.”
The NCAA Board of Governors also voted Tuesday to remove cannabinoids from the list of prohibited substance classes for football championship and postseason participation, effective immediately.
“The NCAA's drug testing program is focused on competitive integrity, and cannabis products do not provide a competitive advantage,” Whitman said. “The Council is focused on policies that center the health and well-being of student-athletes, not on punishment for cannabis use.”
Any penalties currently imposed on student-athletes who have previously tested positive for cannabinoids will be suspended.
The council also approved additional recruiting calendar changes recommended by the FBS and FCS Oversight Committees, including moving football's early signing date to the first week of December. FBS football has extended its July dead period. Starting July 1, there will be a 31-day dead period to allow coaches to prepare for the upcoming season without focusing on recruiting. The council also added a quiet period in December to allow teams to focus on the postseason and conduct on-campus recruiting activities. The January contact period has been extended, giving schools the opportunity to recruit high school seniors and transfer students from four-year universities.
