The Men’s and Women’s Water Polo Rules Subcommittee decided to retain eight-minute periods and the 35-second shot clock based on overwhelming support reflected in the annual survey results. The committees, which held their annual meetings recently, felt the 35-second shot clock was more suitable for collegiate competition than the 30-second shot clock used in international play.

The current number and duration of regular timeouts in a game will be maintained, but the subcommittee agreed to increase the 20-second timeout to 30 seconds. The change will permit slightly more time for coaching instructions and swimming to position while the team sets up its offense during the timeout. Other timeout changes include the defense no longer being able to call a timeout before a penalty throw is taken, and a penalty throw being awarded to the opposing team if a team on defense calls a timeout when not permitted.

Those changes and others must go through the Playing Rules Oversight Panel before being implemented.

For the first time, a two-year rules cycle will be in effect for water polo and all other sports for which the NCAA publishes rules. The next publication of the Men’s and Women’s Water Polo Rules book will be for the 2008-09 and 2009-10 men’s and women’s regular seasons and championships.

This particular two-year cycle was selected for water polo to align with international rules cycle. Changes made by the international water polo governing body during the summer of 2009 will be considered at the January 2010 annual subcommittee meeting.

“Because rules book will not be published next year, the subcommittee will have the opportunity to focus on education and training materials for officials,” said Bob Corb, newly selected coordinator of water polo officials. “In my role as coordinator of officials, my first goal is to improve communication among officials, coaches, administrators and the rules subcommittee. Officials will be able to benefit from clear interpretations of major game situations and, therefore, will be a position to make more consistent applications of the rules.”

The subcommittee asked Corb to gather data regarding two concerns: the number of and reasons for red cards, and occurrences of brutality.

After an extensive discussion on coaches’ conduct, the current administrative rule was retained that a coach who receives a red card shall leave the bench and may not communicate with the team, team officials or referees until the jurisdiction of the referees has ended. In addition, the coach is not allowed to coach in the subsequent game. The site administrator has the responsibility to ensure that the excluded coach does not attempt to coach or speak to the referee while in the stands in either game and must report any problems to the appropriate conference.

Additionally, the committee decided that the offended team will get to choose if the clock is reset to the time of the desk error when a player who has three personal fouls but was not visibly red-flagged by the desk is discovered in the water. Once an error is discovered and the player is removed, the offended team will have two options. The first option is to have the clock reset to the time of the third personal foul, the shot clock reset, and any goals scored and fouls assessed (with the exception of brutality, misconduct, and issuance of yellow or red card) removed. The other option allows the offended team to elect to not reset the clocks and keep all goals scored and fouls assessed during that time.

“The change gives the offended team the right to decide the option that would be most advantageous given the circumstances,” said John Vargas, subcommittee chair and head men’s coach at Stanford.

With regard to attire, the subcommittee approved requiring the women’s water polo suit to have a high back with broad straps to decrease the incidence of exposure. This type of suit is already commonly used. Although grabbing the suit is a foul, the result of the foul may be exposure, which is more common with older style suits. Another related proposal is the handling of a broken zipper or a torn suit. The proposed change provides that if a replacement suit is readily available at the team bench, the player may immediately put the suit on over the original suit in the water and continue play. Research shows that a player can put a suit on over another suit in most cases in less time than to replace a cap.

Although players are required to remove any article likely to cause injury, a new proposal will allow a player to use prescription goggles of the type designed specifically for contact sports as well as other protective devices if the devices are not likely to cause injury to that player or to another player, if they are prescribed by a physician, and if a signed release form is provided to the referee before each game.

“This change will allow players who need to wear the device the opportunity to play,” according to Barbara Kalbus, the water polo secretary-rules editor.

The exclusion foul of a minor act of disrespect toward the referee has been broadened to include a minor act of misconduct against a player, such as minor comments or gestures. Now, the referee must exclude the player from the remainder of the game for misconduct or ignore the foul. This change will allow a 20-second exclusion for both a minor act of disrespect toward a referee and a minor act of misconduct toward a player. The name used for both infractions will be a minor act of misconduct, and the referee will use the same signal for both infractions.