If a proposal from the NCAA Men’s and Women’s Swimming and Diving Committee is approved this season, swimming will join football, basketball and ice hockey as college sports with video replay rules.

The Divisions I, II and III swimming and diving committees, which met separately last month to discuss championship policies but convened jointly to review playing rules (including new restrictions on swimsuits), is recommending to the Playing Rules Oversight Panel that officials at collegiate meets be allowed to use video replay to determine if the electronic equipment in place for relay races has failed.

Officials have traditionally relied on electronic equipment placed on the top of the starting blocks and in the finish pads at the end of the course to determine whether the exchanges made between competitors swimming relay legs are clean. If those mechanical devices, which are prone to failure, do in fact malfunction, teams can be disqualified from the relay.

“The current rules do not allow any recourse in cases of a system failure,” said Saint Rose Senior Associate AD Brian Gordon, who is taking the reins as secretary-rules editor for swimming and diving this year. “There were several documented cases of situations in the past two or three years when officials were certain that the electronic system didn’t work, but the rules book didn’t allow them to correct it. This proposal gives the referee the ability to review video and determine that the relay judging platforms failed.”

Under the proposal, if conclusive video evidence shows that the electronic equipment failed, the referee may overturn the disqualification for that heat.

Gordon noted that officials would not be able to use the video for anything other than to determine whether the relay timing system failed.

“Anything else a referee might observe on that video, such as a stroke infraction or that two other lanes jumped,  is inadmissible,” he said.

Officials must decide before the beginning of a meet to have the video cameras installed. Gordon noted that video cameras as described in the proposal are readily available. Many facilities and swim teams already own these cameras and use them for coaching, he said.

Gordon said the proposal adds an extra layer of protection for the competitors.

“In every other instance, we have a ‘dual confirmation’ required except in this situation when we have nobody overseeing the electronics,” he said. “This is an extra level of security to protect the student-athletes.”

‘Scratches’ and bulkheads

The swimming committee also is recommending that “scratches” be allowed in regular-season invitationals and postseason championship meets. Swimmers or relay teams that do not want to participate in a final based upon results of the preliminaries (for example, a swimmer attempting to qualify for the NCAAs achieves the qualifying standard in the prelims) must complete a scratch card signed by a coach and submit it to the designated official within 30 minutes after the announcement of qualifiers for that event.

They will be allowed to withdraw without penalty and the event shall be reseeded with the first available alternate swimmer or relay team being moved up into the appropriate finals.

“It allows something that has been common practice at every other level of swimming,” Gordon said. “It may not be a factor at the NCAA meet, but certainly at the conference meets where swimmers who have achieved national qualifying times in the prelims don’t have to swim the finals. That can open the door for other athletes to swim in a consolation or championship final and keep the original swimmer fresh for a relay later on.”

The committee also is proposing stricter measuring requirements for facilities in which bulkheads are used. Host institutions in such cases will be required to measure the course and have the officials certify it before every meet. Failure to do so renders the performances recorded null and void for qualifying purposes.

Gordon said the action became necessary after recent incidents in facilities with bulkheads. In one case in which an American record had been set (which required course measurement to verify), the bulkhead was discovered to be out of compliance, which caused all the performances in the meet to be disallowed for NCAA qualifying purposes.

“Because of the inconsistency in facilities, the committee felt that bulkheads need to be measured before and after each meet,” Gordon said.