By: Jaelyn Aleise, contributing intern (@_JaeAleise_)

When you are a college athlete, time is almost never on your side. Between practices, games, traveling, etc., a lot of athletes find it difficult to balance school, their sport, and downtime. A social life can be almost impossible to have during the season. Furthermore, Power Five have proposed a plan to give athletes more time off.

The plan is called the “Flex 21” proposal and will give athletes 21 additional days off from athletic responsibilities. Athletes will have seven consecutive days off following the end of each season and 14 more days off during the academic year. Flex 21 will not count travel days as off days and will include an 8 hour window of free time at night anywhere from 9 p.m. and 6 a.m. The proposal is expected to be presented at the 2017 NCAA convention.

Of course, with proposals such as these, there are mixed feelings from the athletes and coaches. Some agree with the proposal, believing that it will help student athletes succeed both athletically and academically. However, some students who aspire to play a sport on a national or international level prefer the extra practice time.

“We heard from our students that they would like more certainty in their schedules in order to engage in other activities,” a joint statement from the Power Five commissioners said.  “We recognize there will need to be a level of flexibility and reasonableness in carrying out these changes, especially with regard to travel, but students deserve time off and we want athletic departments to work in a sensible and appropriate way to provide it.  We want administrators to have some degree of flexibility in implementing these rules, but they must be mindful that rest is important to a student’s health, in addition to their athletic and academic performance.”

The Ivy League has already approved to new rules for their conference: a 10 hour window of no athletic activity after a road trip and a two week recovery period following the end of a season. This will go into effect in the fall.

The Flex 21 proposal will need to be submitted formally within the next few of months for consideration for the 2017 NCAA convention. It is expected to be approved based on the support from all of the commissioners.