Comments on the 2007 NCAA Rules

[LaxRef]

After a quick pass through the NCAA rule book, I have to say I am quite pleased. Out of the substantive rule change suggestions I submitted, I count about 90 being accepted, 26 being rejected, and 6 being classified as a "push" (they didn't include the change, but they took out the A.R. that was being objected to entirely). It's a little hard to count, because it's hard to say what a rule change is, particularly when you suggest changes to 5 parts of a single rule and they accept 4 of them and reject the other, so I did the best I could.

In any case, I'm very happy with the changes and I think that the rule book continues to improve, in part to the discussion and debate that goes on in this forum!

I’ve noticed a number of changes that were not highlighted in gray as being new. These include:

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Rule 1

A.R. 17 (reworded)

1-21 (adds “official team” before color; still no mention of how a color becomes an official team color)

Rule 2

2-8 (changed “half” to “period”)

Rule 4

A.R. 8 (clarified)

A.R. 18 (almost all new)

4-5-i. (adds “or kicked”)

A.R. 37 (new)

A.R. 38 (new)

4-9-k (adds “before the ball enters the goal”)

A.R. 43 (change to “inside the plane”)

4-13 (rewritten after first paragraph)

4-14 (all new after first three sentences)

A.R. 64 (new)

A.R. 65 (new)

A.R. 66 (new)

4-18-c (mostly rewritten)

4-18-e (changed second half of first sentence)

A.R. 84 (new)

A.R. 85 (new)

A.R. 86 (new)

A.R. 101 (mostly rewritten)

4-14 Exception (changed to “timeout on the endline”)

4-27 (changed first sentence in paragraph 4)

4-28-a (added “and only one request may be made by each head coach during each dead ball.”)

4-28-b (sentences 2 and 3 are new)

Rule 5

5-4-e (combines the old e and f into one point)

5-7 Note (added “or the ground”)

Rule 6

6-6-b (Exception new)

6-6-c (paragraph 2 rewritten)

6-6-f-7 (adds “at the start of each period”)

6-6-0 (new text: “in the half or overtime period”)

6-6-t (changed “feinting” to “feigning”)

6-7 (changed end of second paragraph to “in their respective team areas”)

6-11 (added “unless warned to keep it in” to the note)

Rule 7

7-1-a-3 (adds “directly in front of the scorer’s table")

7-2-b (moved “Exceptions” to where it makes sense)

7-2-d (cut out quite a bit and simplified by changing the last 3 lines)

A.R. 2 (new)

7-4 (added “or if the in-home is already serving a penalty”)

A.R. 29 (added sentence at end)

7-13 (minor changes to a and b)

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These are basically the unmarked changes that actually make a substantive difference. Some of these changes are minor, but since they arose from discussions here I thought it was good to note that they were included. There were also a number of editorial changes, which I didn't bother to note here.

Oh, and I noticed that there were a few deletions as well. For example, A.R. 113 from 2006 (with the goalie pulling the goal down to avoid a goal) was deleted; this removal implicitly allows the more-appropriate penalty of expulsion for flagrant misconduct, since this old A.R. tied our hands with a 3:00 NR USC penalty. They also deleted a number of A.Rs in the sections on advancing the ball (10- and 20-counts) and on the flag down, as well as some on the “goalie breaks equipment” situation; most of these deletions make sense because the rewritten rules spell things out clearly and made the deletions redundant.