Liberty to play Lynchburg College

[John Westfall]

Nick:

Yes we know about their Club team. We turned down a game with them. I wrote Coach Koudelka this evening and offered to play their 2nd string Varsity Guys on Wednesday March 9th right before our Spring Break.

It's up to Coach Koudelka from here. We will play them if that date works.
If not that date we will look at another date.

[onpoint]

It's tough for me to see the benefit of Lynchburg playing this game. They are a top flight DIII team and as such are entitled to only so many "on field" days a year. I don't know why other than proximity they are considering it, but more power to Liberty if it happens. Unless Koudelka organizes it as a scrimmage/practice, I'm pretty sure that if any of his kids dress to play, it counts towards their overall play dates.

[Danny Hogan]

It's tough for me to see the benefit of Lynchburg playing this game. They are a top flight DIII team and as such are entitled to only so many "on field" days a year. I don't know why other than proximity they are considering it, but more power to Liberty if it happens. Unless Koudelka organizes it as a scrimmage/practice, I'm pretty sure that if any of his kids dress to play, it counts towards their overall play dates.

i never really understood how that is applied to jv squads. i know limestone has a very active JV squad, would the JV be comprised of players that don't play in the varsity games at all? i assume they all practice together.

[Catlax]

Danny, if any of the players used in a practice /scrimmage are listed on the varsity roster, the on field time counts. If the NCAA didn't do it that way, you'd have "practice games" on the D-1 level every week. They carry 35-40 guys and 10-15 never see a varsity game until their second year. Coaches would be using (abusing) practice games.

[Danny Hogan]

Danny, if any of the players used in a practice /scrimmage are listed on the varsity roster, the on field time counts. If the NCAA didn't do it that way, you'd have "practice games" on the D-1 level every week. They carry 35-40 guys and 10-15 never see a varsity game until their second year. Coaches would be using (abusing) practice games.

so does the JV at limestone (which plays 3-4 selc teams every year) practice with the varsity squad or what?

[Sonny]

Danny, if any of the players used in a practice /scrimmage are listed on the varsity roster, the on field time counts. If the NCAA didn't do it that way, you'd have "practice games" on the D-1 level every week. They carry 35-40 guys and 10-15 never see a varsity game until their second year. Coaches would be using (abusing) practice games.

so does the JV at limestone (which plays 3-4 selc teams every year) practice with the varsity squad or what?

I may be wrong, but I don't see any SELC teams playing Limestone JV this year. That was a few years ago. (Maybe Limestone had an open date or two back then on their schedule?)

I think CatLax's post above is dead on correct. Varsity teams simply can't afford to burn a play day for a club opponent. Maybe they will do it if they have a hole in their schedule for a geographically desirable opponent. Based on this, I think you will see mostly pre-season scrimmages between MDIA teams and Varsity opponents when the two get together.

[Hugh Nunn]

Last year FSU played Limestine's "JV". I don't know about the breakdown but they have, in the past played several club teams in a season.

Does Div II have different rules about the number of contests they can play (I think Div I and III the number is 17 including fall ball)?

TJ or Kames Palmieri? any thoughts?

[Catlax]

Hugh, I don't think the restriction is only on games played. It's a restriction on time on the field for both practice and games. The intent is to keep teams from conducting 3 hour practices per day and thus taking time away from studies.

With that said, if a JV team is a true JV team (not a varsity non-starter team), then a college could play a full JV schedule if they wanted to do so. The only stipulation is that the JV players could not also suit up for varsity games, or even be on the varsity roster for that matter. It's up to the coaches to keep track of the on field minutes per week for their team. It's an honor system with opposing coaches acting as the watchdogs.

[Sonny]

I don't know the exact rule, but there is a restriction on the number of days of competition during the season. The way I understand the rule, it has nothing to do with hours on the field.

17 dates of competition was the number I was always quoted. You could scrimmage two teams in one day and that would still only count as one day of competition. Don't know if that is just Div. 1 or applies to all NCAA varsity divisions.

[Coach Dave]

You are correct, NCAA varsity teams have 17 competition days. This past week VMI played three games in one day so they would not eat up more competition days. And any player listed on the varsity or j.v. roster has the same number of days.

[Catlax]

Sonny, I know the NCAA has restricted total hours of practice and games, including organized weight training and conditioning for both football and basketball. I don't know if they did it for all sports, but I thought I read somewhere that they did. I won't bet the house on it though!

In any event, I know personally of at least 2 D-1 coaches that keep track of practice times, I just assumed that it was NCAA related. It may be school or coach driven.

[onpoint]

And using the case of Hopkins' Rob Scherr a couple years ago, playing in the fall counts against your eligibility also. No disrespect to Liberty, but there aren't even a lot of teams in the MDIA A that I could see Lynchburg wanting to play.

[cphafner]

Danny, if any of the players used in a practice /scrimmage are listed on the varsity roster, the on field time counts. If the NCAA didn't do it that way, you'd have "practice games" on the D-1 level every week. They carry 35-40 guys and 10-15 never see a varsity game until their second year. Coaches would be using (abusing) practice games.

so does the JV at limestone (which plays 3-4 selc teams every year) practice with the varsity squad or what?

I may be wrong, but I don't see any SELC teams playing Limestone JV this year. That was a few years ago. (Maybe Limestone had an open date or two back then on their schedule?)

I think CatLax's post above is dead on correct. Varsity teams simply can't afford to burn a play day for a club opponent. Maybe they will do it if they have a hole in their schedule for a geographically desirable opponent. Based on this, I think you will see mostly pre-season scrimmages between MDIA teams and Varsity opponents when the two get together.

Limstone's JV contacted us on numerous occasions to play (I believe they contacted Winthrop as well). Gaffney is only about 45 mins from Charlotte. I never saw the need since all they wanted to do was play a team they could spank by 30.

[John Paul]

For cost reasons, most varsity teams do not have JV teams. It's been my experience that in most cases where there is a JV team, it's really just a club team made up mostly of kids who didn't make the varsity. They call them a JV to avoid the "club" connotations. The service academies actually run JV squads that are overseen by the varsity staff (but not directly coached by them), but I'd be pretty surprised if more than one or two D3 schools have JV teams that the varsity coach is really involved with. Most of them struggle to have enough staffing and money just for the varsity team.

Lynchburg is a good program. They are often in the running for a D3 tournament bid. Unlike Whittier, which is forced to fill their schedule with club teams to get competition since they're so isolated, Lynchburg has plenty of regional varsity competition. I'd be pretty surprised if they'd use one of their precious play days to schedule an MDIA team (even a scrimmage just using their 2nd string varsity guys would count as a play day), especially after their regular season has started (they beat St. Mary's last Saturday and they play OWU this Saturday). The only way most of us get to play varsity teams is through multi-team play days in the fall or preseason where they can maximize their return. A few of us schedule real games from time to time (Whittier, St. Vincent this year, etc.), but it's rare. I have to talk to Coach Kudelka in the next couple of weeks. We're on a council board together. I'll be interested to get his perspective on this.

[Sonny]

Coach Paul,

Do you know if the 17 dates of competition applies to all three divisions of NCAA Varsity play? I assume that is only for the Spring season. What are the restrictions, if any, for Fall Ball?