Ralph Baer writes: >Could someone explain what "Traditional Segment" and "Nontraditional >Segment" mean? I had to wait to check the NC$$ Manual (1995-96). This hasn't changed this year. 17.1.1 PLAYING SEASON. The playing (i.e., practice and competition) season for a particular sport is the period of time between the date of an institution's first officially recognized practice session and the date of the institution's last practice session or date of competition, whichever occurs later. An institution is permitted to conduct officially recognized practice and competition each academic year only during the playing season as regulated for each sport in accordance with the provisions of this bylaw. The institution must conduct the same playing season for varsity and subvarsity teams in the same sport. 17.1.2 SEGMENTS OF PLAYING SEASON. For all team sports and for all individual sports that do not utilize the 144-day traditional season option, each member institution may divide the playing season into not more than two distinct segments, as follows: (a) Traditional Segment. The portion of the playing season that concludes with the NCAA championship in the sport shall be known as the "traditional segment," and (b) Nontraditional Segment. The remaining portion of the playing season shall be known as the "nontraditional segment." According to 17.10.1, the length of the playing season is limited to 22 weeks in Div I-II and 21 weeks in DivIII. And according to 17.1.9, practice or competition during any part of a week counts as a full week, but if no practice/competition is scheduled during any week that includes a vacation, final-examination period or holiday period, it doesn't count as part of the playing season. I should add that no changes were made in section 17.10 ICE HOCKEY other than the ones I posted earlier. --- --- Mike Machnik [log in to unmask] Cabletron Systems, Inc. *HMM* 11/13/93