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NCAA News Archive - 2007
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Soccer panel proposes rule changes
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The NCAA News
A drop ball will be used to restart the game after temporary suspension of play if a rule proposed by the NCAA Men’s and Women’s Soccer Rules Committee is approved by the Playing Rules Oversight Panel (PROP) later this spring. The proposal, approved at the soccer rules committee’s January 13-14 meeting in Indianapolis, would make restarts consistent with universal rules.
The drop-ball restart rule and all rules-change proposals must be approved by PROP before being implemented into the rules book. All rules changes will be sent to coaches and commissioners for comment before being submitted to PROP for review March 2.
The rules committee also voted to allow protests for the first time in soccer, as long as the protest is not based on a decision involving the accuracy of the referee’s judgment. The proposal specifies that a protest must be based on a misapplication of a rule of conduct and must be declared before the referee signs the official score sheet and leaves the site of competition.
The coach lodging the protest would be required to complete a Soccer Protest Form and forward it to the committee’s secretary-rules editor within 72 hours of the completion of the game. Previously, there was no provision for a protest in soccer.
In another action, the rules committee recommended that a member of the coaching staff be allowed to view the game from the press box or other areas, provided a press box or other suitable area is available for both teams. Communication in any way with other bench personnel in the coaching and team areas is prohibited, except communication and/or contact is permitted during half time, overtime intervals and/or at any time the staff member returns to the coaching and team area.
“Allowing a member of the coaching staff to observe the game from an elevated location will give the coach the ability to analyze the game from an aerial view,” said Gary Hamill, interim rules committee chair and associate director of athletics at Wingate University. “The coach may then return to the coaching and team area at any time to report on the new perspective.”
The effective date for implementation is pending for a rule that received approval last year regarding shinguards that meet the standards established by the National Operating Committee on Standards for Athletic Equipment (NOCSAE). Manufacturers of the NOCSAE-approved shinguards are still on schedule to have them available in stores in time for preseason practice, but the committee wants to ensure the NOCSAE-approved shinguards are available before mandating the fall 2007 effective date. The shinguards shall be age and size appropriate, not altered, and shall be worn under the stockings in the manner intended, without exception.
“Our committee voted to delay the implementation date until 2008 because there is not a guarantee that all players will be able to find them in all places throughout the U.S. They did not want a situation where players could not find them to purchase,” said ad hoc committee member Tim Flannery of the National High School Federation.
NOCSAE Executive Director Michael Oliver said he has communicated with several manufacturers and has learned that shipments of certified products will be available in stores as early as April, with additional models available in June and July. He is certain the products will be available well before the fall season.
In other actions, the committee strengthened the definition of unsporting language to say the referee shall eject from the game a player, who cannot be replaced, a coach or any team representative if that individual uses “hostile or abusive language or harassment that refers to race, religion, sex or national origin, or other abusive, threatening or obscene language, behavior or conduct.”
“In some parts of the country, certain words or phrases are considered acceptable in public, where if the same words or phrases are used in another part of the country, they are considered offensive,” Hamill said. “The change should give officials a standard by which they can judge if language is acceptable or not.”
In the case of an injured player who is not replaced at the time of the injury, a substitute who has previously checked in at the scorer’s table may enter the game at the next stoppage of play or any allowable time for substitutions. Likewise, when a player is instructed to leave the field for an equipment change and is not replaced at that time, and later a player from the opposing team is ready to enter the game, both the returning player and the substitute may enter the game at the same time. If the returning player does not re-enter the game, the substitute for the opposition must wait until the next allowable time for substitutions.
Other proposals from the soccer rules committee include:
The drop-ball restart rule and all rules-change proposals must be approved by PROP before being implemented into the rules book. All rules changes will be sent to coaches and commissioners for comment before being submitted to PROP for review March 2.
The rules committee also voted to allow protests for the first time in soccer, as long as the protest is not based on a decision involving the accuracy of the referee’s judgment. The proposal specifies that a protest must be based on a misapplication of a rule of conduct and must be declared before the referee signs the official score sheet and leaves the site of competition.
The coach lodging the protest would be required to complete a Soccer Protest Form and forward it to the committee’s secretary-rules editor within 72 hours of the completion of the game. Previously, there was no provision for a protest in soccer.
In another action, the rules committee recommended that a member of the coaching staff be allowed to view the game from the press box or other areas, provided a press box or other suitable area is available for both teams. Communication in any way with other bench personnel in the coaching and team areas is prohibited, except communication and/or contact is permitted during half time, overtime intervals and/or at any time the staff member returns to the coaching and team area.
“Allowing a member of the coaching staff to observe the game from an elevated location will give the coach the ability to analyze the game from an aerial view,” said Gary Hamill, interim rules committee chair and associate director of athletics at Wingate University. “The coach may then return to the coaching and team area at any time to report on the new perspective.”
The effective date for implementation is pending for a rule that received approval last year regarding shinguards that meet the standards established by the National Operating Committee on Standards for Athletic Equipment (NOCSAE). Manufacturers of the NOCSAE-approved shinguards are still on schedule to have them available in stores in time for preseason practice, but the committee wants to ensure the NOCSAE-approved shinguards are available before mandating the fall 2007 effective date. The shinguards shall be age and size appropriate, not altered, and shall be worn under the stockings in the manner intended, without exception.
“Our committee voted to delay the implementation date until 2008 because there is not a guarantee that all players will be able to find them in all places throughout the U.S. They did not want a situation where players could not find them to purchase,” said ad hoc committee member Tim Flannery of the National High School Federation.
NOCSAE Executive Director Michael Oliver said he has communicated with several manufacturers and has learned that shipments of certified products will be available in stores as early as April, with additional models available in June and July. He is certain the products will be available well before the fall season.
In other actions, the committee strengthened the definition of unsporting language to say the referee shall eject from the game a player, who cannot be replaced, a coach or any team representative if that individual uses “hostile or abusive language or harassment that refers to race, religion, sex or national origin, or other abusive, threatening or obscene language, behavior or conduct.”
“In some parts of the country, certain words or phrases are considered acceptable in public, where if the same words or phrases are used in another part of the country, they are considered offensive,” Hamill said. “The change should give officials a standard by which they can judge if language is acceptable or not.”
In the case of an injured player who is not replaced at the time of the injury, a substitute who has previously checked in at the scorer’s table may enter the game at the next stoppage of play or any allowable time for substitutions. Likewise, when a player is instructed to leave the field for an equipment change and is not replaced at that time, and later a player from the opposing team is ready to enter the game, both the returning player and the substitute may enter the game at the same time. If the returning player does not re-enter the game, the substitute for the opposition must wait until the next allowable time for substitutions.
Other proposals from the soccer rules committee include:
- Coaches are reminded that a game cannot be shortened by prior mutual consent.
- Once the score sheet is signed and released for publication, coaches, players and bench personnel bear the burden of any infractions recorded.
- If, because of bad weather or lightening, a game has been interrupted, the contest may not be resumed if teams have waited 90 minutes.
- Statistics from games not considered countable for team-championship selection purposes, including cautions and ejections received with reference to game suspensions and card accumulations, do not count.
- It is legal to conduct a collegiate soccer game in an indoor facility provided the dimensions are in compliance with Rule 1-1-b, an outdoor facility is not available, and there is prior written mutual consent.
- Recommendation of a fourth official is an administrative rule that may be altered by prior written mutual consent. The change promotes consistency for a trend to use the alternate official in collegiate soccer.
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