By: Cody Bush, Associate Commissioner / Strategic Communications

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – Highlighting its 2024 meetings, the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference’s Athletics Administrators Council (AAC) approved the implementation of sideline video in football, committed to a common bye week for football starting in 2026, and approved the first schedule of the league’s new basketball scheduling model.

The RMAC will allow the use of tablets on the sidelines for 2024. Each sideline will be permitted to use up to five tablets during the game, which will be connected to the SkyCoach video system.

The AAC also supported a recommendation from the RMAC Student-Athlete Health and Safety Committee to insert a common bye week in the league’s 2026 schedule. The league will schedule the common bye week during Week 6 of the season. No countable athletically related activities will be permitted on Friday, Saturday, and one additional day (determined at each institution’s discretion) during the bye week.

The Council also approved the 2024-25 league schedules for men’s and women’s basketball, instituting the new Thursday-Saturday league schedule to provide a day off between conference contests. The change will further the league’s efforts to improve student-athlete health and safety initiatives. The 2024-25 schedule also divides the league’s 15 basketball-playing institutions into three-team pods, with each team playing 20 league games.

The league also extended its partnership with WeCOACH for a third consecutive season. WeCOACH is a one-of-a-kind nonprofit membership organization dedicated to recruiting, advancing, and retaining women coaches in all sports and levels through year-round professional growth and leadership development programs. 

Other actions taken by the AAC during its July meeting included:

• Beginning in 2024, the league will require two cameras for volleyball’s challenge review system.
• The RMAC Golf Championships will use the NCAA's substitution rule beginning with the 2025 RMAC Championships. The rule allows a team to substitute a sixth player for any team member before the start of a round.
• The RMAC agreed to partner with the Peach Belt Conference for an "Automatic Qualifier" game in men’s lacrosse, giving RMAC teams access to an AQ in men's lacrosse for the first time.
• The AAC also adopted the NCAA Championship neutrality policy for its championships. Host institutions will be allowed to incorporate typical pre-game promotions but must resume neutrality at the start of the contest through its conclusion.
• A change to the women's soccer championship format was approved to be implemented with the 2024 championship. With the change, the No. 7 and 8-seeded teams will play a first-round contest, with the winner advancing to the quarterfinals to face the No. 2 seed. The No. 1 seed will receive a bye into the semifinal round of the championship.
• The 2024 men’s soccer schedule was also approved, and a change was implemented that moved the league’s Wednesday games to a common Wednesday to end the regular season. In addition, the start of the RMAC Men’s Soccer Championship was pushed back a day to provide adequate rest and recovery between the end of the regular season and the beginning of the tournament.
• San Francisco State withdrew its associate membership in men’s wrestling as the sport continues its growth in the West.

About the RMAC
The RMAC is a premier NCAA Division II conference located in Colorado Springs, Colorado, with 15 member schools. The RMAC sponsors 22 varsity NCAA sports and has produced 65 NCAA Division II national champions and 54 national runners-up since 1992.