The NCAA News - News and Features

February 24, 1997

Men's, women's soccer to use sudden death in overtime situations

Overtime periods in regular-season games will be sudden death beginning this fall, due to a rule change made by the NCAA Men's and Women's Soccer Rules Committee during its annual meeting February 4-7 in Tucson, Arizona.

Previously, regular-season games tied after the regulation 90 minutes of play were extended by two 15-minute overtime periods of traditional soccer. If the match was tied after those periods, it was declared a draw.

Now, the two overtime periods will be sudden death. If neither team scores in the two 15-minute periods, the game still will be declared a draw.

The committee took no action regarding overtimes in postseason games -- including conference tournaments, play-ins and NCAA championships -- stipulating that the current overtime system be maintained for determining advancement.

"The issue of how to conduct overtime, or whether to conduct overtime, in the regular season has been a topic of discussion for several years in the soccer coaching community," said Chris Petrucelli, women's soccer coach at the University of Notre Dame and chair of the Men's and Women's Soccer Rules Committee. "In the interest of student-athlete welfare, it was the committee's intent to shorten the length of extended play without compromising the spirit of determining a winner.

"The committee felt that implementing sudden death in regular-season overtimes was an appropriate compromise between the current traditional overtime periods and eliminating them altogether."

Misconduct penalties

The committee also voted to toughen penalties for misconduct, implementing a series of stricter punishments for both players and coaches who are ejected for red-card violations and/or fighting.

The committee stipulated that a player's second red card in the same season and any subsequent red card received will result in a two-game suspension. The committee also voted to require a coach who is red-carded to sit out a team's following game.

In addition, the committee increased the penalties for fighting, stating that a player's first fighting offense shall carry a two-game suspension and a second fighting offense will result in that player's suspension for the remainder of the season, including postseason games.

The committee emphasized, however, that the two-game suspension for multiple red cards and the suspensions imposed for fighting are mutually exclusive.

For example, if a player is red-carded for a nonfighting violation, sits out the following game, then is ejected for fighting in the next game, he or she would be required to miss the next two games. If that player then is ejected for a nonfighting violation later in the season, he or she would be required to miss the next two games. Any subsequent fighting offense would require that player to miss the remainder of the season, including postseason games.

"The committee believes that unsporting behavior of any kind damages the image of the sport," Petrucelli said. "Though we do not believe there is an alarming increase in misconduct in the sport of soccer, we're nonetheless sending the message loud and clear that fighting, language abuse and violent play will not be tolerated."

Other actions

In other actions, the committee will require the official scorekeeper at each game to obtain the referee's signature on the official box score form, thus verifying yellow cards issued, ejection reports and other official statistics.

The committee also stipulated that the home team must wear a uniform in clear color contrast to the visiting team. In case of conflict, the home team must wear white or light-colored uniforms.

This change allows the home team to wear its school colors if it so desires.

Other highlights

Men's and Women's Soccer Rules Committee
February 4-7/Tucson, Arizona