The people responsible for making sure baseball is played properly between the lines will go online starting next year to prove their knowledge of the game.

The NCAA Umpire Improvement Program actually introduced a new Web-based rules exam for officials early this year -- and more than 1,400 umpires at all levels of play signed in to test themselves on rules and officiating mechanics.

However, beginning next winter, anyone with aspirations of umpiring in the Division I Baseball Championship will be required to log on through a computer and successfully complete a 50-question test.

"Theoretically, there are more requirements to officiate at the high-school level than there are at the college level, which always has seemed backward to me," said Dave Yeast, NCAA national coordinator of baseball umpires, who last fall gained the Division I Baseball Committee's approval for mandatory online testing.

"There's no guarantee that our officials even own a rules book -- again, that's something that has always concerned me. I've felt we haven't held our officials accountable in areas where we can."

Thanks to technology and support from the Division I committee, Yeast's program now at least can hold umpires who officiate in the NCAA's most visible baseball tournament responsible for knowing the rules, as well as demonstrating an understanding of the mechanics of umpiring.

"(Yeast) realized we don't have any kind of standards to be an umpire," said Division I committee Chair Charles Carr, senior associate director of athletics at Florida State University. "So, this is an attempt to develop the basic understanding that everyone should have. It's much needed, and welcomed by the committee."

In one sense, the online rules test is the culmination of Yeast's campaign since becoming national coordinator in 1996 to improve knowledge and instill professionalism among college baseball umpires. In another sense, though, it's a beginning, because of the Division I championship's growing need for young but proficient talent behind the plate and around the diamond.

"What we've found through this process is that we have a need for good officiating, and there's not enough of it," Carr said. "We need to continue to develop young people in officiating, and this is another way to help them feel confident about what they're doing, and give us the consistency we need."

The online test -- paired with training camps begun last year to give developing umpires an opportunity to officiate live games in front of evaluators (see the June 7, 2004, issue of The NCAA News) -- is the biggest initiative Yeast has undertaken to achieve that goal.

The test itself isn't a new concept. "We -- the (NCAA Baseball Rules Committee's) secretary-rules editor and myself -- have prepared a rules test and distributed that as a paper document to conferences and made it available (in document form) online," Yeast said. "But it was just a tool, a way to get people into the rules book."

Some conferences, however, began requiring their umpires to take the test annually. It was conferences' use of that tool -- and their desire to make the test easier to administer -- that prompted Yeast to explore the feasibility of a Web-based exam.

"(The conferences) expressed frustration that if they've got 70 or 80 umpires on their staff, and they require the test, that meant 70 or 80 people sending the coordinator a piece of paper with all the answers on it -- and rules references, which we required -- and then requiring the coordinator to grade all those exams," Yeast said.

"So they asked, could you -- would you -- put this online somehow?"

Yeast worked with the NCAA national office's information services staff to determine whether online testing was feasible. The staff said it could adapt software currently used for coaches' ce rtification tests for use in rules testing.

Serving all umpires

Anyone could log in and register to take the pilot test that was offered online from January through early March this year. Yeast said 1,438 individuals completed that exam -- including umpires in all three NCAA divisions and from other levels of competition.

How did they do? "They did well," Yeast said. "There's no question they did very well."

The questions covered a variety of situations, dealing with everything from specific plays on the field to aspects of game administration. Many of the questions involved complex situations or multiple players, and in fact some of the questions probably were too complicated, Yeast concedes -- a problem that will be remembered in assembling next year's exam.

There also were a few technical glitches, but Yeast says the first round of testing was a success -- not only because it demonstrated that the exam can be efficiently administered online, but more importantly because it prompted umpires to start thinking and talking about baseball rules.