Overtime practices are accepted part of college football

No, say Gary Barta and Kirk Ferentz, everybody doesn't exceed practice-hour limits the NCAA imposes on its football teams.

But Iowa's athletics director and football coach had no qualms admitting Tuesday what most of us logically assumed. College football players spend more than 20 hours a week on their sport, and it isn't discouraged.

This week, the Detroit Free Press published a story with comments from former and current Michigan players. Among the claims: U-M Coach Rich Rodriguez allegedly worked his players beyond NCAA limits of four hours on Sundays and 20 hours a week in-season.

A common reaction from the outside world: Big whoop. They all do it.

Well, uh, not really. All it takes for trouble is one whistle-blower. With several players apparently doing it, the Wolverines have a problem no matter how many of their angry fans howl “Witch hunt!”

Hey, if you think Tim Tebow, Colt McCoy or Joe Hawkeye spends 20 hours a week on football and not a tick more, see me for a sweet deal on a bridge in downtown Iowa City.

“There's definitely no pressure,” Iowa quarterback Ricky Stanzi insisted. “If you want to be a better football player, you know what you have to do. You know you have to go in and watch film. You have to put in extra time. Nothing is just going to be given to you, especially at this level.”

Added cornerback Amari Spievey: “Besides football practice, they don't make us come here. It's all up to us. They encourage it, but it's not mandatory. We don't do crazy hours here.

“We do the time we're supposed to, and if we want to get better, we come in extra.”

If Rodriguez made his players spend nine hours on football activities on Sundays last fall as accused, he's a blatant rule-breaker and a fool.

Discussing only his own program, Ferentz said “The rules are pretty cut and dried.

You've got 20 hours in season, you've got eight out of season, and there's certainly some things you can't do.

“In a perfect world I'd love to come in and just watch the film on Sunday and get rid of the players, and then have a light practice on Monday night. But if you did that, there goes your (NCAA-mandated) day off.

“So we made the selection, we work on Sundays. I'm a big believer in getting our tapes done, good, bad or indifferent, putting the game behind us and then moving on. Our option is to give our players off on Monday. That's what we do, and it's worked out just fine. But it would be nice to give them some football Monday evening.”

When I suggested to Barta many subscribe to “Everybody goes over the 20-hour weekly limit,” he strongly challenged the assertion.

“I'm not comfortable or open to the concept of ‘everybody does it' - because I just don't think that's true,” Barta said.

“There are rules. We follow rules.”

But college football isn't a part-time pastime.

“I think everyone would agree that if you're not here and you don't want to put in the extra hours, you probably won't succeed at this university,” Stanzi said. “All our players know that.”

“We have some student-athletes who dedicate more time to it and some who dedicate less,” Barta said.

Coaches always know which is which. And athletes know coaches know.