National Collegiate Athletic Association

The NCAA News - News and Features

February 23, 1998

Reorganization of book among minor soccer rules actions

Feeling comfortable with the state of the game, the NCAA Men's and Women's Soccer Rules Committee made only minor changes to playing rules during its annual meeting February 3-5 in Kansas City, Missouri.

The most dramatic change perhaps is an editorial change that will be apparent early this summer when the committee publishes a recodified rules book. Responding to requests from various constituents, including coaches, officials and other soccer administrators, the committee voted to reorganize the current rules book from seven to 17 rules to more closely align with rules books from other soccer governing bodies.

While the committee reaffirmed the need for collegiate soccer to maintain playing rules that are separate and distinct from other soccer governing bodies, it believed that similarly patterning the contents with other rules books would provide readers with an easier reference when citing the rules of play.

The 1998 rules book should be available in June.

In actions involving playing rules, the committee made only a few changes, including a revision in the penalty-kick tiebreaker procedures. The committee voted to increase the number of players allowed to participate in the tiebreaker from those who have played in the game to any player listed on the official game roster.

The committee also reviewed rules regarding misconduct and repaired what it believed to be an inequity in the way fighting penalties and other ejections were administered. The committee retained the two-game suspension for a player's first fighting offense (as well as a season-ending suspension for a second offense) but revised the punishment for any player ejected for fighting who had been red-carded earlier in the season for a different infraction.

Specifically, the committee stipulated that if a player's first fighting offense occurs after any nonfighting ejection, the fighting offense along with the necessary two-game suspension for a previous red card shall carry an additional game suspension (total of three games).

The committee also reviewed the yellow- and red-card accumulation system and determined that coaches shall be subject to the same penalties and accumulations as players.

While no additional changes were made regarding the administration of the current system, a subcommittee was appointed to study the possibility of moving toward a point system currently employed by Major League Soccer as a way of penalizing player misconduct.

Such a system would assess a point value to different infractions and would require game suspensions when players accumulate a specified number of points.

The subcommittee, consisting of rules committee members and representatives from the National Intercollegiate Soccer Officials Asso-ciation (NISOA) and the United States Soccer Federation (USSF), was charged with reporting its findings and any recommendations to the full committee in 1999.

In a related matter, the committee discussed the card monitoring system that was implemented on a trial basis last year through the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) and asked that the NSCAA work to obtain additional support from the Collegiate Commissioners Association before moving ahead further with the project.

Other highlights

Men's and Women's Soccer Rules Committee
February 3-5/Kansas City, Missouri

  • Clarified that it is the home team's responsibility to notify the visiting team before the date of a game if the field is of less than minimal dimensions.

  • Clarified that the rule requiring goalkeepers to wear colors that distinguish themselves from all other players and referees refers only to jerseys.

  • Stipulated that if a team substitutes for a player who is ordered off the field for an equipment change, the opposing team may replace an equal number of players at that time.

  • Allowed for officials to wear shoes that are primarily black.

  • Allowed a goalkeeper to be credited with a shutout if he or she plays the entire game. If two or more goalkeepers participate in a game and do not allow any goals, they are to be credited with a shared shutout.

  • Ruled that if a postseason game that is not followed by a game the next day is suspended and resumed the next day, overtime procedures shall be followed according to the guidelines set forth in Rule 4-1-b.

  • Agreed to revise the current official box score form to better enable scorekeepers to track necessary statistics.

  • Changed "intentionally" to "deliberately" in Rule 6-3 regarding handling.

  • Clarified that a coach serving a game suspension shall be restricted to the designated spectator areas and is prohibited from any contact, direct or indirect, with his or her team, assistant coaches and/or bench personnel from the start of the contest to its completion.

  • Ruled that an ejected player or coach who is serving a game suspension in a game that is suspended before it has reached the 70th minute may, if eligible, participate in the next regularly scheduled game but must sit out the remainder of the suspended game when resumed.

  • Banned the use of adhesive material to enhance the grip during a throw-in.