The NCAA News - News and Features

December 8, 1997

Sudden-death overtimes favored by soccer coaches

After several years of debate regarding overtimes, soccer coaches have indicated their support of the sudden-death system used in regular-season games this year.

Three-fourths of the nearly 800 coaches who responded to the annual soccer rules survey were in favor of the system that replaced the traditional 30 minutes of standard soccer in regular-season games.

The overtime question was part of a review of the rules changes implemented this year. Other changes that garnered support included a rule allowing teams to wear school colors at home, a season-ending suspension for a player's second fighting offense and a one-game suspension for coaches who are red-carded.

The NCAA Men's and Women's Soccer Rules Committee recommended the implementation of sudden-death overtime for regular-season games after also considering sudden-death for all games, including postseason contests, or elimination of overtime periods in regular-season games only.

The latter two options appeared again on this year's survey, but neither earned overwhelming support. Coaches rejected the idea of eliminating overtime periods in regular-season games by a three-to-one vote, while a proposed move to sudden-death overtimes in all games produced a 50-50 split.

For the third year, survey results included responses from officials, who supported the sudden-death system for regular-season games but were more supportive (58 percent) of the proposal to eliminate overtimes in the regular season.

Other proposals included a change that would move all walls to 15 yards instead of 10, which was supported by only 18 percent of both coaches and officials. The Soccer Rules Committee had urged experimentation with the 15-yard walls this past year.

Proposals that earned support included restricting the number of players allowed to participate in a penalty-kick tiebreaker to those on the field at the end of the game and a season-ending suspension for players who receive three red cards in a season.

The survey also included several questions regarding substitution, including a proposal meant to determine interest in federating substitution rules by division, which collected only moderate support.