Sorry, but this is wrong. And if Dino was referring to
bowl (and not Spring) practices, then he is wrong. If Jesus came down and talked about 15 bowl practices, he (she?) would be wrong.
There are no mandated limits to the
number of practices held for a bowl-eligible FBS football team. The limits are the same as during the regular season - no more than 20 hours per week, no more than 4 hours per day.
"(It's) a common misconception that's been around for years," NCAA spokesman Christopher Radford said. "There is no specific limit on the number of practices a team may hold while preparing for a bowl game, but standard NCAA rules apply for participation in practice or other athletically related activities. Same as the regular season, these rules limit practice and other athletic activities to a maximum of four hours per day and 20 hours per week."
Syracuse gives its players the week of finals off. Then there is the time leading up to NLI signing day when the staff is out recruiting. Coaches use few of the practices for actual game prep, mostly the one directly leading up to the game. Many of the practices are focused on returning players' development, as a prelude to the Spring practice season. So, given the week off for finals, and coaches out recruiting, it is entirely conceivable that it works out to about 15 practices (~3 hours per day for 5 days for 3 weeks), and that may be where Dino is coming from.
And speaking of Spring football, this is possibly where the confusion comes in. In Spring football, teams
ARE limited to
15 practices (NCAA bylaw 17.10.6.5).
Hopefully this clears some things up. It's obviously much easier to say "15 practices" than "no more than 20 hours per week, no more than 4 hours per day", so I think that plays into it.
But for bowl purposes, there is no such thing as a 15 practice limit.
