Every morning, the entire Penn men's basketball team meets and does pilates. It's just one example of a way the full team can meet and work out before formal practice is allowed to begin on Oct. 15.
From the time the season ends until the middle of this month, the NCAA has strict standards as to what teams can and cannot do.
The rules are very specific.
Before the academic year opens, the players are allowed extremely little contact with their coaches and they are forbidden to play in any organized games.
"Though some of the rules are tight, they're there to keep things in order and not let them get out of hand," said Penn Assistant Compliance Coordinator Michelle Stewart. "People have to remember that student-athletes are students first. That is why there are restrictions."
Student-athletes are, however, allowed to get conditioning coaching from coaches who "are not countable coaches and perform such duties on a department-wide basis," according to the NCAA rule book. Of course, those workouts are strictly "voluntary."
Once the season starts, the rules loosen, but the NCAA still tries to protect its overworked student-athletes. The whole team is still not allowed to be together with its coaches.
Each player is only allowed eight hours a week of coaching, "of which not more than two hours per week may be spent on individual skill workouts," the NCAA says.
Those workouts have to be initiated by the players, and no more than four athletes are allowed to get "skill-related" instruction from their coaches at any time.
The only time that the whole team can be together with the coaching staff is, not surprisingly for the NCAA, for promotional events.
The team, without practices, has to find creative ways to keep the athletes together, like pilates. The team also has informal scrimmages without coaches present.
While every school has NCAA compliance officers who are responsible for enforcing these rules, according to Stewart, the onus falls on the coaches.
"Our coaches have the responsibility of knowing what pertains to their sport and what they can and cannot do ... they come to us for guidance," Stewart said.
Last year, Penn almost suffered a major setback when it was discovered that the Quakers' all-Ivy guard Jeff Schiffner participated in a church league game over the summer. That, of course, violates NCAA rule 17.1.5.2.1, which "prohibits athletically related activities outside the playing season."
Schiffner was eventually cleared to play, and outside of that one slip-up, Penn coach Fran Dunphy isn't too worried about the restrictions.
"I don't think it's a big deal," Dunphy said. "I'm very comfortable with the amount of time we're allowed to spend with the players during the preseason. They lift weights. They train their bodies. It's the right amount of time and I think it's fine."
Fine, as long as you follow the rules. So, at least until Oct. 15, it's all pilates and four-man drills for Penn's basketball teams.
