National Collegiate Athletic Association

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The NCAA News -- March 1, 1999

Soccer Rules Committee OKs sudden death for postseason

The Men's and Women's Soccer Rules Committee has adopted a revised overtime policy for postseason play that may prompt coaches to change strategies should games require extra periods of play.

The committee, meeting February 2-5 in Palm Springs, California, approved that all overtime periods in both regular-season and postseason play be sudden death. Previously, overtimes during the regular season were sudden death, but in postseason play, two 15-minute periods of regular soccer were played before sudden death began.

The change was in response to requests from the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA), which had asked that overtime policies be consistent between the regular season and postseason.

The postseason overtime procedure remains at four overtime periods before going to penalty kicks, but all four periods now will be sudden death.

The committee also dealt with a number of issues relating to cautions and ejections, which included a reiteration that if a player receives a caution during a game, the only other card that player may receive in that game is a red card, regardless of the severity of the player's second offense.

The committee issued the clarification to address confusion regarding players who commit two "yellow-card offenses" during the same game. The committee emphasized that even though the offenses, had they occurred in separate games would have been classified as a yellow-card offenses, the second card issued in a single game is always a red card. For accumulation purposes, the most cards any one player may receive in a game is one yellow followed by one red.

The committee also discussed the differences in pregame administration between different institutions. The committee recommended use of a pregame timing sheet for pregame administration. The NCAA will produce a sample timing sheet to assist those teams unfamiliar with its use. The committee anticipates stricter adherence to timely roster exchanges and game start times.

The committee also added language to the rules book concerning the new logo restrictions of team bench personnel participating in an NCAA championship and/or media conference. Bylaw 12.5.5, which applies to the logo restrictions of student-athletes' apparel, has been expanded to cover coaches, athletic trainers, managers, band members, cheerleaders, dance team members and the institution's mascot at NCAA championships.

Other highlights

Men's and Women's Soccer Rules Committee
February 2-5/Palm Springs, California

Determined that computer-generated score sheets as permissible in the scoring of NCAA competition. A list of scorekeeper duties was amended to reflect what statistical information was necessary to be included on the score sheet being used.

Agreed that a player delaying the restart of play or a player failing to respect the required distance when play is restarted with a corner or free kick were cautionable offenses.

Clarified if a coach who coaches both a men's and women's team at the same institution receives an ejection, the coach will sit out the next game of whichever team he or she was coaching when he or she received the ejection. The committee also emphasized that a coach serving a game suspension was not permitted to communicate or make contact with his or her team, assistant coaches and/or bench personnel from the start of the contest to its completion.

Stipulated that a goalkeeper is not permitted to catch a throw-in.

Voted to allow players to wear a commemorative patch on the team jerseys.

Revised the interpretation of when a ball was considered dead during a penalty kick after the expiration of time. The committee determined that the ball is alive until the ball comes to a stop, regardless of any incidental contact with the goalkeeper.

Reviewed preliminary research on the possible implementation of a card-monitoring system, but agreed that a card-monitoring system was not necessary at this time.

Voted that press box facilities may be used as a permissible substitute for a timekeeper's table on the field.

Recommended Phil Pincince, women's soccer coach at Brown University, as the new chair of the committee. Pincince will succeed Sigi Schmid, men's soccer coach at the University of California, Los Angeles, whose term expires in September.