Any required activity with an athletics purpose, run or supervised by a coaching staff member (strength coaches included), counts. Administrative activities like compliance and academic meetings don't count. In season, the limit is 4 hours a day and 20 hours a week with one day off. Out of season during the academic year, it is 8 hours a week with two days off.
What CARA means#
CARA stands for countable athletically related activities. Bylaw 17.02.1 defines them as any required activity with an athletics purpose that involves athletes and is directed or supervised by one or more members of the coaching staff. If you require it and a coach runs or watches it, assume it counts.
The Manual also has a wider category, required athletically related activities (Bylaw 17.02.16). It covers things you can require that don't go on the CARA log, such as compliance meetings, media, community service, fundraising and travel to away games. Those matter for days off, which we cover below.
The Division I limits#
| Limit | In season | Out of season, academic year |
|---|---|---|
| Hours a week | 20 | 8 |
| Days off a week | 1 | 2 |
| Skill-related work | Counts toward the 20 | No more than 4 of the 8, except basketball |
In season#
- 4 hours a day, counted per calendar day from 12 a.m. to 11:59 p.m. (Bylaws 17.1.7.1 and 17.1.7.3.1)
- 20 hours a week (Bylaw 17.1.7.1)
- 1 day off a week with no countable activity (Bylaw 17.1.7.4)
- A competition day counts as 3 hours, however long the game and its associated activities run (Bylaw 17.1.7.3.2)
- Nothing countable after a game, except between contests or rounds of a multiday event, like a doubleheader (Bylaw 17.1.7.3.2.1)
You pick which seven days make up your week, by sport. Once set, the week can't change for the rest of that segment (Bylaw 17.1.7.3.3).
The daily and weekly limits don't apply during preseason practice before classes start or the first game, whichever comes first, or during official vacation periods. They do apply during finals (Bylaws 17.1.7.3.5 to 17.1.7.3.7). An athlete who plays two sports still gets 4 hours a day and 20 a week in total (Bylaw 17.1.7.3.8).
Out of season, during the academic year#
- 8 hours a week, limited to required weight training, conditioning and skill-related instruction (Bylaw 17.1.7.2)
- No more than 4 of those hours on skill-related work, in every sport except basketball. Skill-related instruction includes film review and team meetings about technique and tactics (Bylaws 17.1.7.2 and 17.1.7.2.2)
- 2 days off a week (Bylaw 17.1.7.5)
- No countable activity from one week before finals through the end of the term, or during vacation periods and summer (Bylaws 17.1.7.2 and 17.1.7.2.1)
Football runs on its own out-of-season rules. Bowl and championship subdivision teams get 8 hours a week after their last game, with no more than 2 of them on film and walk-throughs, and different rules later in the year (Bylaw 17.1.7.2).
Time-management rules#
Division I also requires an eight-hour overnight window, between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m., with no required activities other than competition, and 14 additional days off each year (Bylaws 17.1.7.12.6 and 17.1.7.9). Under these rules, a day with travel to or from competition can't serve as the weekly day off, with narrow exceptions for late-night returns (Bylaw 17.1.7.7.1). These are areas of autonomy, so the autonomy conferences can set their own versions. Ask your compliance office which version applies to you.
What counts and what doesn't#
Counts toward CARA#
- Practice, including walk-throughs
- Games and scrimmages, logged as 3 hours for the day
- Required weight training and conditioning, including sessions your strength coach runs
- Film sessions with coaches
- Skill instruction and position meetings about technique or tactics
- Team meetings you call about the sport
- A video you require athletes to watch on their own. It is a required activity at your direction, so log it and confirm the method with compliance.
Doesn't count toward CARA#
The NCAA's own Division I time-management sheet lists these as outside the limit:
- Compliance meetings and academic meetings
- Injury treatment and prevention
- Nutritionist and sports psychologist sessions
- Media activities
- Hosting recruits
- Community service and team fundraising
Medical treatment and academic help, like tutoring, are also allowed on required days off (Bylaws 17.1.7.7 and 17.1.7.8).
Travel to and from away games is on the required-activities list (Bylaw 17.02.16), not the countable one. On game day, the 3-hour count covers the game and what goes with it.
Voluntary activity#
Voluntary workouts don't count, but only when all four conditions in Bylaw 17.02.21 hold:
- Nobody reports anything about the activity back to a coach, including trainers or managers who saw it.
- The athlete starts it and asks for it. Staff can share when the weight room is open.
- Nobody records attendance for coaches or teammates to see.
- Skipping it carries no penalty, and showing up earns no reward.
Break any one and the activity is countable. A "voluntary" lift with a sign-in sheet the head coach reviews is a required lift.
How to keep a weekly CARA log#
Bylaw 17.1.7.3.4 requires countable hours to be recorded daily for each athlete, in team and individual sports alike. An activity counts only for the athletes who take part. An injured player who sits out practice doesn't log those hours.
Your compliance office will likely have its own form. Whatever the format, each entry needs:
- The date
- The athlete, or the roster with any exceptions noted
- The activity and who ran it
- Start and end time
- Hours counted (3 for a competition day)
- Running daily and weekly totals
- Notes on anything that didn't count, so an auditor sees you thought about it
Sample in-season week#
A soccer team with a Saturday road game and a Monday-to-Sunday week:
- Monday: practice, 2.5 hours. Film with position coaches, 1 hour. Day total 3.5.
- Tuesday: required lift with the strength coach, 1 hour. Practice, 2.5 hours. Day total 3.5. Not counted: athletic training treatment, 30 minutes.
- Wednesday: practice, 2.5 hours. Scouting meeting on Saturday's opponent, 0.5 hours. Day total 3.0. Not counted: compliance meeting, 30 minutes.
- Thursday: practice, 2 hours. Lift, 0.75 hours. Day total 2.75.
- Friday: practice before travel, 1.5 hours. Day total 1.5. Not counted: bus to the away game.
- Saturday: game day, logged as 3 hours. No countable activity after the game.
- Sunday: day off. Day total 0.
Weekly total: 17.25 hours, under 20. No day passes 4 hours. Sunday is the day off. Friday has travel, which is why it isn't the day off.
Sample out-of-season week#
- Monday: lift, 1.25 hours. Skill session, 1.5 hours.
- Tuesday: day off.
- Wednesday: lift, 1.25 hours. Film and tactics meeting, 1 hour.
- Thursday: skill session, 1.5 hours.
- Friday: lift, 1.25 hours.
- Saturday and Sunday: days off.
Weekly total: 7.75 hours, under 8. Skill-related work: 1.5 + 1 + 1.5 = 4 hours, right at the cap. The film meeting counts as skill-related work.
Common mistakes#
- Logging a game by its real length. A competition day is 3 hours. A post-game lift isn't allowed at all.
- Calling something voluntary when it isn't. Attendance taken, results reported to a coach or a reward for showing up all make it countable.
- Forgetting film and position meetings. They count in season, and out of season they fall under the 4-hour skill-related cap.
- Forgetting the strength coach. Required lifts and conditioning count, whoever runs them.
- Changing your week mid-segment. Pick your seven days and keep them.
- Logging the team instead of each athlete. The rule is per athlete. A player who sits out, or a two-sport athlete, needs their own numbers.
- Using a travel day as the day off. Under the time-management rules, it generally can't be.
- Leaving out assigned video. Film or lessons you require athletes to watch on their own are required work. Track them like any other session.
Tracking assigned hours in Snack#
The last mistake is the hardest to catch by hand, because nobody is in the room. Snack's CARA Compliance Reporting add-on counts it for you. It is free for athletics teams.
When you send Snacks (video lessons) to an athlete or a group in an assignment, Snack counts how far each athlete gets into each video, up to its length, as CARA Hours. Videos athletes open on their own show up separately as Non-CARA Hours. Athletes don't log anything.
Owners and admins set it up from CARA Reports with Set the season calendar:
- Team details: Sport, Division, Timezone and Week starts on. Set the week to match the one you declared to compliance.
- In-season windows: a Label, Start and End for each season.
- Weekly limits: In season hours starts at 20, Out of season hours at 8 and Warning percent at 80.
Select Save settings. Each athlete then shows as OK, Approaching or Over, and Risk first puts the athletes who need attention at the top. On Monday mornings, owners, admins and the coaches who made the assignments get a push notification when anyone is approaching or over the limit. Export CSV gives your compliance office the athlete, group, CARA and non-CARA hours, season mode, date range, the coach who assigned the work and the warning status. Before a dead period, Lockdown blocks new assignments and hides athlete activity from coaches until you resume.
Snack counts only what happens in Snack. It doesn't check the 4-hour daily limit, days off or the out-of-season skill cap, and practices, lifts and games still go on your own log. Treat its numbers as one line of the log you keep for compliance.
For more detail, read what counts as CARA hours in the help center and how to track CARA hours and export a report. For the bylaws themselves, the current NCAA Division I Manual is the primary source.