NCAA Rule Says Alabama Gets More Practice Time For The Title Game Than Clemson

ESPN – If No. 1-ranked Clemson is to defeat No. 2 Alabama in the College Football Playoff championship, the Tigers will have to do it with less practice time.

For the second consecutive season of the College Football Playoff, one team may benefit from unlimited practices and team meetings while the other must adhere to the NCAA’s 20-hour rule limiting countable athletic activities.

An ACC spokesperson confirmed to ESPN that Clemson will adhere to the practice limit.

…

Just when you thought the NCAA couldn’t get any worse…just when you thought you’d heard it all when it came to stupid, idiotic, irrational and asinine rules and regulations…DUN DUN DUNNNNNN, we’ve got a new one! One team getting more practice time than the other for the National Championship game! Unlimited time for Alabama, 20 hour limit for Clemson. All because of some dumb ass school schedules:

Alabama’s spring semester starts Jan. 13 — two days after the CFB Playoff title game on Jan. 11, while Clemson’s spring semester begins Wednesday.

The Tigers are not restricted by the length of any practices/team meetings until Tuesday, but they are limited to a maximum of four hours a day beginning Wednesday, according to NCAA rules.

Because Alabama’s spring semester doesn’t start until after the title game, the Crimson Tide’s countable athletic activities are not restricted by the NCAA’s 20-hour weekly rule.

During the bowl season, the NCAA’s 20-hour limit is usually not a concern because teams are on holiday break. But this is the second consecutive year it has impacted one of the teams in the title game.

Practices, weightlifting and any film sessions or meetings required by coaches count toward the 20-hour limit. The game also counts as three hours, no matter how long it lasts.

The same thing that happened with Ohio State and Oregon last year:

In the week leading up to last season’s title game, No. 4 Ohio State was able to conduct unlimited practices and team meetings, while No. 2 Oregon had to adhere to the NCAA rule because of the schools’ different academic schedules.

Oregon coach Mark Helfrich said it was a “bit of an annoyance for competing teams to have different parameters,” but said he didn’t focus any energy on it.

Ohio State linebacker Joshua Perry admitted it may have been an advantage for the Buckeyes.

“I would say the one thing that was advantageous to us was we weren’t worried about getting a new syllabus or shaking a professor’s hand and trying to figure things out for a semester,” Perry said.

Is it the biggest deal in the world? Of course not. I agree with Dabo on the issue.

But is it an advantage? Of course. No matter how slight or insignificant you might think the advantage is, it’s there, and it’s absurd that it should even be in the discussion. We’ve waited all season for this game, college football has made so many steps to put in the Playoff and make the postseason as awesome as possible, and yet they still can’t get out of their own way when it comes to stupid shit like TV scheduling and arbitrary school schedule rules.