The NCAA News - News and FeaturesMay 11, 1998
Alpine skiers to qualify for slots through West regional
The NCAA Men's and Women's Skiing Committee, meeting April 26-28 in Kansas City, Missouri, decided not to allocate Alpine championships slots to teams in the Pacific Northwest and Central regions.
Instead, Alpine skiers from both regions would qualify through the West regional. The committee understands the desire of the schools in this region to have qualifiers reserved for their regions but decided that those regions need to develop more Alpine programs before they can have spots allocated for them.
In order to set a framework for related future discussions, the committee began a discussion on the development of a mission statement in which an allocation philosophy would be stated. Drafts of that statement will be discussed on future conference calls.
Regarding rules, the committee:
Added a clarification that spelled out how a team champion is to be determined in cases where not all events for both genders are completed because of weather or other factors. In the case of such a discontinuance, the team score of the discipline that was completed shall be doubled and the team champion determined by the total number of points scored after that adjustment. There was no such previous provision, though it was common practice in some geographical areas.
Provided for the substitution of a sick or injured skier for up to one hour before the start of competition. The replacement skier will compete in the same seed as the student-athlete he or she replaced. Once a team has used its team-size limits (that is, 10 men, 10 women), there can be no substitution for subsequent events.
Added the following rules regarding what constitutes an official uniform: (a) Uniforms must be team-issued, of the same predominant color and substantially similar; (b) soft armor must comply with rule 5-4 ("all competitors are expected to conduct themselves in a sporting manner and to present a personal appearance that will reflect the highest credit upon their sport and their institutions."); (c) hard armor is considered equipment and therefore does not have to comply with uniform rules; and (d) if T-shirts are worn for cross country, they must be team-issued. If more than one student-athlete wears a T-shirt for an event, the T-shirts of all of the team's competitors who are wearing T-shirts must match.
Increased the fairness of mass starts in cross country races by ruling that, in the event of uneven terrain, the starting line should be set so that each competitor has the same distance to the first turn. The committee also decreased the distance that each additional starting line (row) had to be from each other. With the change, each line must be a concentric arc three meters behind the previous line. The rationale is that the former four-meter distance was excessive. The committee also ruled that competitors in all rows must stand with the toe of each boot behind the starting line.
Expanded the section on forerunners. Under the changes, forerunners will start approximately 15 minutes before the start of the race at the discretion of the chief of race. Forerunners must have the ability to ski the course at racing speed and must be distinguished from the racers by special bibs. On multiple-lap courses, forerunners shall ski only one lap. Times of forerunners shall not be published.
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