FAQs for Instructors of Student-Athletes

Notre Dame is independent in football, a member of the Big Ten in hockey, and a member of the ACC in all other sports. NCAA rules govern how many competitions can take place in each sport, as well as the timing of the season. For sports in which Notre Dame is a member of a conference, the conference office will prepare draft schedules of any conference portion of the schedule. Notre Dame’s coaches and sport administrators will work to schedule any non-conference competition. Conference, NCAA and College Football Playoff (CFP) policies dictate the format and timing of their respective post-season competitions. All schedules, including post-season competition and any schedule changes, require approval of the Faculty Board on Athletics or, by delegation, its Chair. The Faculty Board on Athletics has scheduling guidelines that limit the number of classes student-athletes can miss during the semester.

• Fall: Men’s and women’s cross country, football, volleyball, and men’s and women’s soccer have a full competition schedule in the fall. Some other teams that primarily compete in the spring will also miss class for tournaments in the fall, including men’s and women’s golf and men’s and women’s tennis. Men's and women's tennis have an individual national championship in the fall and a team national championship in the spring.

• Fall and spring: Winter sports, including hockey, men’s and women’s basketball, swimming and diving, fencing, and indoor track and field have a season that begins later in the fall and ends midway through the spring.

• Spring: Men’s and women’s lacrosse, men’s and women’s golf, men’s and women’s tennis, baseball, softball, and men’s and women’s outdoor track and field have a full competition schedule in the spring.

It is important to note that spring-season teams without indoor competition venues (baseball, softball, and golf) may have a heavier travel schedule early in the spring semester.

All approved competition schedules appear on the Athletics website at fightingirish.com. Student-athletes can provide additional information on their travel schedules, as can counselors in Academic Services for Student-Athletes (ASSA). Click here for information on how to contact an academic counselor for a specific sport.

Under Faculty Board on Athletics policies, coaches are expected to construct their regular season schedules so that student-athletes miss no more than three classes in the Monday-Wednesday-Friday sequence and no more than three classes in the Tuesday-Thursday sequence. Various factors, including the need to build competitive schedules, facilities conflicts, the unavailability of flights, and weather disruptions, can require coaches to propose schedules that will cause additional missed class. Any such request requires the consideration and approval of the Faculty Board on Athletics or, in cases falling clearly within past precedents, its Chair.

In the ACC, Notre Dame competes in nine Olympic sports with regular-season conference schedules: men’s soccer, women’s soccer, volleyball, men’s lacrosse, women’s lacrosse, men’s tennis, women’s tennis, softball, and baseball. The remaining 13 ACC sports have ACC conference championships, but do not have regular season ACC competition schedules (although Notre Dame sometimes chooses to schedule conference opponents in these sports). Notre Dame teams with regular season ACC competition schedules can expect to travel to the West Coast every other year. The format of conference competition in each sport, including whether all teams play one another in a given season, is subject to the review and approval of ACC advisory committees consisting of all ACC institutions’ Directors of Athletics, Senior Woman Administrators, and Faculty Athletics Representatives. Notre Dame’s representatives continually evaluate the impact of conference schedules on missed class time.

Post-season travel requires approval of the Faculty Board on Athletics or its Chair. In general, teams are expected to arrive at the site of competition no more than 48 hours ahead of the event.

In general, Notre Dame does not allow student-athletes to compete in regular season competition during final examinations. (Exceptions to this rule are extremely rare, and have involved unexpected academic calendar changes, as during the Covid-19 pandemic.) For post-season competition, the Chair of the Faculty Board on Athletics, the Director of Academic Services for Student-Athletes, and the deans of the colleges and schools work together to notify instructors of conflicts. Student-athletes work with their instructors to find a mutually convenient time for rescheduling outside of the conflict window.

No. Notre Dame’s Undergraduate Academic Code (section 3.1.3) provides instructors with discretion over attendance, except in the case of excused absences authorized under the Code. Any absence authorized by the Faculty Board on Athletics or its chair is an excused absence authorized under the Code. In the case of an excused absence, the Code requires an instructor to allow the student to make up work "within a reasonable period of time and without penalty."

Instructors can offer the same assistance that they would offer to any other student who missed classes for other reaons. Such assistance might include providing a link to a recorded lecture, providing support during office hours, and extending assignment due dates that fall within the travel period, among other things. For more information, contact Academic Services for Student-Athletes or the student's advising dean.Instructors must allow students with excused absences to make up work “within a reasonable time and without penalty.”

The Undergraduate Academic Code (section 3.1.3) requires that student-athletes have an opportunity to make up missed work "within a reasonable time and without penalty." If away travel or competition will interfere with a substantial segment of the student’s opportunity to work on the assignment, extending the deadline may be appropriate. For a longer term assignment, students can be expected to plan around the travel and competition.

Instructors will receive information about excused absences from Academic Services for Student-Athletes (ASSA). Whenever possible, ASSA will send notifications four days in advance of planned travel. ASSA counselors or student-athletes can also provide a projected travel schedule at the beginning of the semester if an instructor would prefer to have the information in advance.

Last-minute changes sometimes make it impossible to notify instructors about travel until after the normal four-day window. Examples include bad weather requiring a later or earlier start to a game, flight delays and cancellations, injuries causing changes to a travel roster, a change in the availability of practice facilities for travel teams, or a team continuing in post-season play. All schedule changes are approved by the Faculty Board on Athletics or its Chair. The FBA and ASSA make every effort to notify instructors of absences and changes as soon as possible.

No. Absences are excused only for those who are on the travel roster for a particular event. Rosters can vary between the regular season, conference championships, and NCAA championships. If you have a question about whether a student-athlete’s absence is excused, contact the ASSA counselor for the student’s team. A list of ASSA counselors is available at here.

The Office of Academic Services for Student-Athletes (ASSA) maintains a web portal at mystudentathletes.nd.edu. The portal lists student-athletes currently enrolled in your courses, and you can use it to share feedback regarding students’ attendance and performance in your class. You can also offer feedback by contacting a specific team’s academic counselor or by emailing assa@nd.edu.

A student’s ASSA counselor works with, but is not a substitute for, a student’s college or school academic advisor or departmental advising personnel. ASSA counselors strongly encourage students to meet with Assistant Deans, college academic advisors, and Directors of Undergraduate Studies when topics of course selection, course discontinuance, and major/minor declaration arise. ASSA counselors have specific knowledge of student-athlete practice and competition schedules and of the unique demands student-athletes face in managing their time, so counselors can be a helpful resource for students and advisors as students develop academic plans or course schedules.

Counselors in the Office of Academic Services for Student-Athletes (ASSA) are available to instructors to discuss student progress and deficiencies. ASSA is not part of the Department of Athletics and reports to the Office of the Provost. A list of ASSA counselors is available at here. Instructors can of course also contact the student's advising dean.

Although coaches and athletics administrators of course play a critical role in the holistic development of student-athletes, specific aspects of a student-athlete’s academic development—including communicating with instructors, advising on course selection, arranging for academic assistance, and administering exams—must be left to ASSA counselors and their academic partners. As members of the University community, coaches and athletics administrators will undoubtedly have social and other interactions with faculty members. They cannot, however, initiate conversations with instructors about specific students or their academic performance. Similarly, instructors should not contact coaches or athletics administrators about the performance of student-athletes in their courses. For comments or questions about specific students, instructors can contact the ASSA counselors for the students' sports. For comments or questions about policy matters, instructors can contact the Chair or other members of the Faculty Board on Athletics.