Power Five conference commissioners want to change NCAA rules to give college athletes more time away from team activities, including no longer counting travel as an off day, a mandatory seven-day break after the season and an additional 14 off days from athletic activity during the academic year.The agreement in concept was announced Thursday by the Atlantic Coast Conference, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12 and Southeastern Conference. The leagues said they believed they had found the right balance to help tens of thousands of athletes with a proposal they are calling Flex 21. The extra 21 days off would be in addition to the current mandatory off days, and could be tailored to fit each teams schedule with input from coaches and athletes.Formal proposals still need to be submitted, but the conferences could vote to turn them into NCAA rules at the next convention in January.College sports leaders have been looking into changes to ease the time demands on athletes for several years. At the last NCAA convention, the issue was delayed so more research could be done, including a survey of athletes from all sports. Conference officials seem eager to provide more benefits to athletes at a time when college sports is under legal and public pressure to make changes, including a push to pay athletes. Led by the College Athletes Players Association, members of the Northwestern football team made an attempt to unionize that ultimately failed.NCAA members schools and conferences have in recent years agreed to raise the value of athletic scholarships to cover the federally determined true cost of attendance that goes beyond tuition, books, room and board, and fees. They have also guaranteed four-year scholarships for many athletes and given athletes more say in making rules.We heard from our students that they would like more certainty in their schedules in order to engage in other activities, the commissioners said in a joint statement. 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 students health, in addition to their athletic and academic performance.Currently, athletes are generally limited during the school year to 20 countable hours toward their sports per week, with one day off. Countable hours mostly cover practices, competition and conditioning, but does not count travel to and from events. The commissioners proposed expanding the definition of required athletic activities to include but not be limited to activities such as media requirements and mandatory community service.The proposal also includes a mandatory free-time block of eight hours overnight.The 14 extra off days will be on top of the current required two calendar days off per week outside the season. The additional 14 days can be used during the season if agreed to by coaches and athletes.We believe we have found the right balance between helping students participate in sports while also providing them with more down time, the commissioners said. Different sports have different demands and we think the concepts weve agreed to will help tens of thousands of students achieve more balance as they pursue their academic and athletic commitments.---Online:Joint statement from the conferences: http://www.theacc.com/news/commissioners...orts-07-07-2016 Chase Anderson Jersey . -- Quarterback Will Finch threw for 252 yards and three touchdowns, and Yannick Harou rushed in two scores as the No. Billy McKinney Blue Jays Jersey .C. -- When North Carolina freshman Ryan Switzer reported to training camp in August he was a little miffed to learn he was third on the depth chart at punt returner. https://www.cheapbluejays.com/376h-mark-buehrle-jersey-blue-jays.html . Malkin got tangled up with Detroits Luke Glendening early in the third period and his left skate took the brunt of collision with the boards behind Pittsburghs net. Anthony Bass Blue Jays Jersey . 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WEST POINT, N.Y. -- Bob Sutton is still riveted by Americas Game, even if hes far from the service academy world that once consumed him when he coached at Army.And despite recent lopsided results in the fierce Army-Navy rivalry -- the Middies have won 14 straight -- Sutton says nothing is ever a given when these two teams play.I love the Army-Navy game, best game going, said Sutton, now defensive coordinator for the NFLs Kansas City Chiefs. I think (Army) has things turned around a bit. They were close last year. Navy, Ken (coach Niumatalolo) has done an unbelievable job there. Hes won some huge games this year.But Ill say this about Army-Navy, none of that matters one bit, he said. None of it has anything to do with that game.That game will be played Saturday in Baltimore, not far from the Navy campus. The Middies (9-3) are coming off a 34-10 loss to Temple in the American Athletic Conference title game, a setback that relegated star quarterback Will Worth to the bench for the rest of the year with a foot injury and sent them plummeting from the AP Top 25 . They will face an Army team that hasnt played in three weeks.One thing is certain, though. No matter the final score, coach Jeff Monkens third year at West Point will end like only one other football season at the academy in the past two decades. The Black Knights (6-5) will be playing in the postseason -- theyve accepted a berth in the Heart of Dallas Bowl against North Texas in late December -for just the second time since Suttons 1996 team won a school-record 10 games.Thats a big deal around here.Im very proud of this team, senior linebacker and co-captain Jeremy Timpf said. I know Army has been struggling the past few years, and its good to go out as a senior and know that youve produced a bowl game. Its nice to leave that with the program.Sutton spent eight years as an assistant at Army under Jim Young before taking over as head coach in 1991. His nine-year tenure is second in length at the academy only to the famed Earl Red Blaik, architect of two national champions in the mid-1940s, and Sutton knew how to beat Navy. His teamms went 6-3 against the Middies, five of the victories in succession.ddddddddddddSutton was fired after a 10-point loss to Navy in 1999 left Army at 3-8 for the second straight year, and the Black Knights have struggled mightily since. Rich Ellersons 2010 team, which finished 7-6 and beat SMU in the Armed Forces Bowl, has been the lone exception in this long stretch of futility.Meanwhile, service academy rivals Navy and Air Force have thrived.The Falcons won their 20th Commander-in-Chiefs Trophy a month ago at Michie Stadium, snatching the coveted hardware, emblematic of supremacy among the three schools, back from Navy (Army has won it only six times). Since 2007, Air Force has only failed to make the postseason once; Navy has missed playing in a bowl game just once since 2003.Army, the lone independent among the three schools, hopes to join that perennial party. It wont be easy.One year at a time, mate.At the academy, youre only going to go so high, Sutton said. It doesnt mean you cant be successful, but youre framed by all these different aspects. Football is very important, but its not the most important thing. Thats never going to change.On Saturday, it will be very important -- to both teams -- and Army comes in with more emotion than usual. Its gold helmets carry a sticker with the No. 28 framed by the words Brother, Teammate, Friend in honor of sophomore defensive back Brandon Jackson, a rising star who was killed in a one-car crash the morning after Army had beaten Rice in early September.I never thought I would lose one of my brothers while we were still at school together -- while we were still teammates, senior linebacker Andrew Knight wrote in a personal letter posted Wednesday in the Players Tribune . West Point prepares you for many things, but not for something like that.---AP Sports Writer Dave Skretta in Kansas City, Missouri, contributed to this report.---More AP college football: www.collegefootball.ap.org and https://twitter.com/AP-Top25 ' ' '