The warnings are posted prominently in most college locker rooms: no chewing tobacco, no gambling. The NCAA mandates are made clear.

What isn't clear this time of year is another no-no. Student-athletes have no insurance, or precious little of it, while working out this summer.

Curtis Williams was paralyzed during a Huskies game, yet only receives enough insurance money for 72 hours of care per week.(AP)

The desire to win, along with advances in strength conditioning, have made several college sports evolve into year-round animals. It might be a drag to work out in the middle of summer but there is no choice for some athletes.

Coaches pressure them to do it. If they don't, their opponent down the road is getting ahead.

The problem is that as seasons have expanded, insurance coverage for athletes basically has not. Schools are finding it an added expense to pay for premiums that extend into summer. The NCAA has coverage available during the academic year, but essentially none dealing with athletes in the summer.

"It's a concern of the ADs and it's a concern of coaches," said Mitch Barnhart, the Oregon State athletic director. "The problem is you get into the voluntary workouts using the weight room and if something went wrong the university would be liable. I've seen that come up before where a kid gets hurt and he's got to have a way to get his knee fixed."

The NCAA pays an annual $7.5 million premium to cover athletes with catastrophic injury insurance during the academic year. Potential high draft choices can obtain disability insurance that would cover them in the event of an injury. All student-athletes are covered by a $10,000 life insurance policy that pays families in the event of death.

What about the kid on campus for the summer who steps off a curb, breaks a leg and is done for the season?

Illinois receiver Brandon Lloyd actually did step off the curb and break his leg in July 2000. The season-ending injury was covered by the school's student health insurance because Lloyd was enrolled in summer school classes.

But there are thousands of football players this summer not going to summer school and still pumping iron. Because the trend now is toward 100 percent participation in offseason "voluntary" workouts in football, the concern should be huge. Not all those players are in summer school.

"The general rule has been that a school can only cover injuries during the academic year that are athletically related," said Steve Mallonee, an NCAA director of membership services.

There is pending legislation that would allow schools to provide health insurance to student-athletes for an entire calendar year. Another piece of legislation would allow schools to provide insurance for the entire academic year for any injury, not just those athletically related.

Mallonee said the NCAA has "basically approved legislation" that allows a school's strength coach to oversee voluntary weight room workouts. In that case, Mallonee said, a school would be allowed to "cover the cost of any injury that occurs." A key piece of proposed legislation would provide insurance at times when there is no coach supervising summer seven-on-seven football practices or pickup basketball games.

But change is sometimes slow in the NCAA's grinding rules-making machinery. Especially since the summer problem is relatively a new one.

"The thought process 20 years ago was since you didn't do anything over the summer you shouldn't be covering," Mallonee said. "Now you know staying on campus is the norm, not the exception."

Even if it is the right thing to do, schools might find it financially difficult to cover their athletes. The insurance costs could be prohibitive.

"You have that mindset bumped up against the reality that basically in a lot of sports, training and conditioning has become year round," Mallonee said. "If you interviewed the presidents you might find out they're not opposed to eliminating summer workouts."

Cutting summer workouts might be the wave of the future according to David Knight. Knight, the faculty representative at North Carolina-Greensboro, is chairman of the NCAA Academics/Eligibility/Compliance Cabinet that is trying to develop insurance legislation.

"People seem to be reluctant to extend that (insurance coverage) into summer," Knight said "That's what's happened in our discussions."

So what's a student-athlete to do? There's always coverage provided by a family. But in many cases, insurance is the last thing in the budget for low-income families with students in college.

"Even if they did have coverage, an HMO probably would be unlikely to carry over into football practices where injuries are more prevalent," said Tim Waters, consultant to the newly formed Collegiate Athletes Coalition.

The family of Florida State linebacker Devaughn Darling found out about NCAA insurance earlier this year. Darling died during a February workout. The family received the standard $10,000 life insurance coverage.

"That's not right," Devaughn's brother, Devard, was quoted as saying. "We're out there making millions for these schools and that's all we're worth to them -- $10,000?"

What the NCAA wants to stress is that 15 years ago, there was no NCAA insurance like there is today. The association has listened to concerns and tried to adjust.

"Look around," said NCAA spokesman Wally Renfro. "Try to find a policy as good as this one." SportsLine.com asked a veteran midwestern insurance underwriter to evaluate that life insurance policy.

"No doubt the NCAA provides a lot of good benefits to student-athletes but I think that's one area they need to review," said State Farm's John Burns, who played major-college football and has a son who played major-college basketball. "Ten thousand dollars might bury you and that's about it ... The kids and the parents aren't really aware of all that. They come in and sign a letter of intent. They take whatever benefits are given them."

Washington defensive back Curtis Williams was paralyzed making a tackle against Stanford last season. Williams was taken in by his brother, David, who has devoted his life now to taking care of his quadriplegic sibling. The problem, as the Williams see it, is the NCAA catastrophic insurance plan pays for only $100,000 of at-home care per year. That's the equivalent of 72 hours of care per week in this case.

The policy, in this case, does cover full-time care at a nursing care facility. David Williams prefers to care for his brother at home.

"We're going to continue to work with the family to maximize the coverage," Renfro said.

More than a quarter century ago, TCU's Kent Waldrep was paralyzed in a game against Alabama. Back in 1974 there was no catastrophic insurance. He eventually sought workmen's compensation benefits because he said he was a university employee. After a series of court battles, four years ago Waldrep lost his final attempt to receive $70 per week in workmen's comp and costs to cover his medical expenses.

"That really gets to the guts of the issue," Waldrep said. "Why should a kid be sacrificing himself for a school without, at least, proper insurance coverage? Why should it cost a family money when a kid is injured? It's absurd. With as much money as college football is making these days, they can take care of these kids as well as they're taking care of these coaches."

The Collegiate Athletes Coalition was formed in January, in part, to raise awareness of what they say is the lack of insurance coverage. The coalition wants to extend coverage to summer workouts and raise the amount of life insurance available. It also wants insurance to cover athletes beyond graduation for injuries suffered in college.

"There's a rule governing everything but there's no rule that says they have to be covered by health insurance at all practices," said Waters, an official with the United Steelworkers of America which is working with the coalition. "The summer workouts that are considered voluntary are not necessarily covered."

"They (CAC) don't seem to be seeking any answers from those who could make a difference," Renfro said. "I don't think we've been exactly bashful about there being places for them to get information."

Strength conditioning doesn't include the summer tradition of players participating in seven-on-seven football drills. Former Illinois coach Lou Tepper remembered his Illini players piling into cars driving up the interstate to challenge Illinois State to a summer seven-on-seven game on their own.

While the "game" didn't violate NCAA rules, Tepper said he was extremely nervous seeing 45 of his players traveling on their own to play in an unsupervised game.

One major-college compliance director told said that some schools simply pay for the treatment of an injury if it occurs during the summer. It is seen as the cost of fielding a Division I-A program.

"It's not written anywhere but if you break a finger or a toe it's taken care of," the director said. "If I were a doctor I would align myself with a major football program because someone has to pay for this stuff."

All that continues to put athletes at risk.

"If you don't show up you're just not going to play," said former UCLA safety Ryan Roques, organizing director of the CAC. "It's definitely year-round. The summer is usually the hardest. We're getting ready for 'hell week.'"

Hell Week, Roques said, is the beginning of August two-a-days when players are expected to arrive in shape. That wasn't always the case. Approximately 10 years ago, coaches began to fill summer vacation with fall preparation.

Then, as Alabama coach Dennis Franchione said, "everybody's light bulb went off and said, 'Gosh, they can be working out.'"

"The nice thing is you didn't have to worry about guys that were away and wonder what they were doing," Franchione said later. "You used to have a physical test when the players came back to see what kind of shape they were in ... Now, if they've been here all summer, you don't have to physically test them."

Or, in some cases, insure them.