The NCAA has sent a request for institutions that have used time limits in softball games in 2000 to remove those contests not played to seven-inning completion from their won-lost records and statistical information.

The issue was brought to the NCAA's attention when several institutions inquired about having the time-limit contests removed from their record because the games were not completed within the time limits stipulated in the playing rules.

The NCAA Softball Rules Committee has indicated that conducting competition using a time limit is contrary to NCAA rules. Therefore, games conducted using a time limit, unless seven innings were completed, may not be counted in an institution's won-loss record.

Although those contests may not be counted in a school's overall record, the Divisions I, II and III Softball Committees reserve the right to consider all available information in the championships selection process.

When submitting score-reporting forms for the respective divisional regional advisory committees, institutions should delete time-limit contests not played to seven innings from the won-lost record. However, the games still should be listed in the results and noted by an asterisk indicating that a time limit was used, and the number of innings played to completion should be listed.

In addition, individual and overall team statistics for games played under a time limit and not played to seven innings should be removed from cumulative statistics.

The Softball Rules Committee approved the time-limit rule in June 1998, but the rule was not enacted until the fall of 1999 in order to give tournament directors an opportunity to plan tournaments and game schedules with the rule in mind. The rules change, which was listed in both the 1999 and 2000 NCAA Softball Rules book (Rule 6, Section 12, page 55), was not recognized by some institutions at the beginning of the 2000 season.

NCAA Bylaw 20.9.3.3 (minimum requirements for sports sponsorship) requires Division I colleges that sponsor softball to compete in at least 27 contests. Scheduled contests that are canceled or not completed in accordance with the playing rules of the sport may not be counted toward meeting this minimum.

This means that scrimmages, exhibition contests and time-limit games not played in accordance with the playing rules of the sport may not be used to meet the minimum sports sponsorship requirement of completed contests (27 for Division I, 24 for Division II and 12 for Division III) for the sport of softball.

The maximum number of contests that Divisions I or II colleges and Divisions I and II student-athletes may compete in is 56 softball contests each year (which does not include annual exemptions). For Division III, the maximum is 45. For purposes of Bylaw 17, any game (including a time-limit game), match, exhibition scrimmage or joint practice session with another institution's team is considered a contest, and therefore would count toward the maximum contest limit for each division.

For student-athletes who competed in only those games with time limits for the 1999-00 season, an institution may appeal to the appropriate division administrative review subcommittee to waive the normal application of Bylaw 14.2.4.1 (minimum amount of competition).

Coaches and administrators should read tournament materials thoroughly to ensure that tournament directors are aware that time limits are not to be used in collegiate softball.