A 60-second shot clock will be used for men's lacrosse games beginning in 2001, as voted by the NCAA Men's Lacrosse Committee at its annual meeting July 16-20 in Manchester Village, Vermont.

"The shot-clock rule and the related changes will simplify the game for fans and participants," said Joe Boylan, chair of the committee and director of athletics at Loyola College (Maryland). "These changes will create action in attacking and defending the goal, which is the most exciting part of the sport.

"The committee anticipates that schools will use the existing penalty clocks to administer the rules change from the scorer's table, so there will be no extra cost for equipment."

With the change, the shot clock will be reset to 60 seconds after each shot, play-on and change of possession with the exception that it will be turned off during extra-man situations. All sideline horns will be eliminated, which will speed up play and eliminate dead-ball substitutions from the sideline. This change also eliminates the interruptions caused by a coach calling for a horn on a sideline out of bounds with no intention of making a substitution.

Stalling call eliminated

In another related change, the committee eliminated the stalling call, including the requirement that the leading team keep the ball in the goal-attack area in the last two minutes of regulation play. The committee's rationale in doing so was that teams can no longer stall because they have to shoot within 60 seconds. A shot will be defined as a ball propelled toward the goal by an offensive player in an attempt to score, either by being thrown from a crosse, kicked or otherwise physically directed. The only change from the previous definition is the addition of the phrase "in an attempt to score." The committee eliminated the 10-second count in the offensive end but retained the 10-second count in the defensive end.

"The committee looks forward to working with the men's lacrosse community during the fall to resolve issues of concern so that implementing these changes will lead to a smooth regular season in the spring," Boylan said.

The committee's main point of emphasis is that late hits and body checks from the rear need to be adjudicated more closely. The committee's desire is that, for deterrence purposes,

any illegal body check from the rear should be penalized as such, not as a 30-second push. The committee feels that such fouls are dangerous and need to be penalized with the harsher call. The committee also will ask that officials continue to watch for players taking a dive to draw a foul call on an opponent in loose-ball situations.

The committee made three other rules changes in addition to passing a list of editorial changes and approved rulings. The play-on technique will be extended to include loose ball-infractions at the mid-line as well as at the defensive-area lines. Similarly, outlet passes from the goalkeeper that are not initially caught by the fouled player will be play-on situations. Under the old rules, play would have been stopped, then restarted in both instances.

Players serving a penalty during a man-down face-off will be prohibited from entering the field until an official signifies possession. Before the change, such players were allowed to enter the field as soon as penalty time expired. The committee made the change because of safety concerns and to assist the officials' control of the game.

The committee also changed the game-opening coin toss so that the team that wins the toss gets choice of field and the team that loses the toss gets the first alternate possession of the game. The team winning the coin toss got both choices in the past.

The committee also discussed specifications on the crosse at length but elected not to make any changes in the rules regarding such equipment. The committee will seek to work with an independent researcher to construct a prototype mold, which if approved, would assist officials and manufacturers in determining if crosses are legal.

The division subcommittees also took action regarding their respective championships, which are listed below.

Division I

Recommended to the Championships/
Competition Cabinet that the America East Conference, Eastern College Athletic Conference, Ivy Group and Patriot League receive automatic qualification for the 2001 championship. This recommendation was made after review of the cabinet's mandate that four championship berths be allocated for conference champions as determined by each conference's rating-percentage index and that one berth be allocated for the West region representative for 2001. The cabinet ruled that beginning in 2002, all eligible conferences will receive automatic qualification or play-in status.

Received a report that the Great Western Lacrosse League will apply to join the NCAA in 2000-01. Discussion regarding a 2002 automatic-qualification spot for the league was tabled pending verification of league membership.

Division II

Noted that the 2001 structure will provide for a maximum field of four teams, under which the committee will select two teams from the Northeast and Southwest regions. Each semifinal game will be played on the campus of one of the participating schools. The top-seeded team from each region will be provided the opportunity to host, if the venue meets minimum site-selection criteria. Competing teams will be paired by region.

Voted that when teams under consideration for championship selection are virtually tied on all criteria, the committee will select under the following other criteria in rank order: (1) head-to-head competition; (2) results against common opponents; (3) results against teams already selected.

Division III

Will request emergency funding outside the normal budgeting process from the Division III Championships Committee for one additional Pool C berth for 2001. The committee's goal is to relieve the harmful effect on student-athletes caused by the elimination of all Pool C berths. The need for this request arose after review of the plan for 2001 showed that no schools would be selected from Pool C. Thus, all nonchampions from automatic-qualifying conferences will be left out because 10 conferences will receive Pool A berths and four independent/non-AQ conference schools will receive Pool B berths, thereby filling the 14-team bracket.

Noted that one of the regular-season ramifications of the championship committee's AQ structure is that West region schools have scheduling difficulties because Pool A schools no longer need to play out-of-conference games. In light of this, the committee voted to eliminate the West region and realign and the nine schools from that region be realigned to the South region for 2001.

All divisions

Regarding issues that affect all championships, the committee:

Confirmed that the respective division committees will select teams for Divisions I, II, and III championships on May 6, 2001.

Voted that the second-place teams be recognized during the postgame awards ceremony.

Clarified that a maximum of 10 non-eligible student-athletes are permitted to participate in pregame warm-ups and to remain in full uniform for the entire game. Should an institution choose not to permit non-eligible players to dress in full uniform, the institution is permitted 20 bench passes for institutional representatives such as coaches, athletic trainers, managers, administrators or student-athletes wearing uniform tops rather than full uniforms.

Instituted a postseason film-exchange policy for all divisions because of the inconsistent televising of championship contests, which the committee said might benefit some teams.