National Collegiate Athletic Association

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West Coast Conference seeks to implement
baseball instant replay rule

By Greg Johnson
NCAA.org

The Baseball Rules Committee agreed to a request that will allow the West Coast Conference to use experimental instant replay rules during its conference tournament in 2014.

Final approval of the proposal must be given by the Playing Rules Oversight Panel, which is scheduled to meet via conference call Aug. 27.

In 2012, the Baseball Rules Committee added to the instant replay rule for the 2013 season, which originally was only for games that take place in the Men’s College World Series in Omaha, Neb. It allows umpires to use video replay to see if a ball originally called foul was actually fair.

For the umpires to conference in this scenario, the ball must have touched the ground beyond first or third base, have touched the ground beyond the first or third baseman and originally been called foul. If the call is overturned, it will be up to the umpire crew chief to determine where to place all base runners on the play.

Umpires are currently allowed to conference on several specific types of plays. This new rule is an expansion of the “Getting the Call Right” provisions already in the rules book.

The foul-to-fair call was one of the plays added to the instant replay experimental rule at the MCWS. In 2012, the committee permitted experimental instant replay reviews at the MCWS on the following:

• Deciding if an apparent home run is fair or foul.
• Deciding whether a batted ball left the playing field for a home run or a ground-rule double.
• Spectator-interference plays (only on plays involving home run balls).

There were no instant replay reviews during the 2012 or 2013 MCWS.

Baseball Rules Committee members believe the West Coast Conference should be allowed to implement the experimental replay rule since the league is prepared to follow the same procedures and protocols that would be followed at the MCWS.