Legal Field Issues

[laxfan25]

As we get ready to head into the new season, I just wanted to remind all teams about requirements for field markings.
As Sonny has pointed out in other posts, the proper field markings are illustrated in the 2005 NCAA rule book.
There are certain elements of the field marking rules that can be waived by mutual consent of the competing institutions. These include field dimensions, goal design, outside field markings (boxes, spectator lines, etc.). However, if the visiting team decides to be pricklers about it, they can refuse to agree to waive the rule. It is then incumbent on the coach of the home team to 1) correct before gametime with no penalty 2) correct, but delay the start of the game - in which case the visitors would start with possession, or 3) if unable or unwilling to correct, it is a 3-minute non-releaseable penalty to start!

Last year I had two different visiting teams call for the 3 minutes, because the field was too short or too narrow. It is certainly their perogative to do so, so be forewarned! (Incidentally, both teams that called for the penalty ended up losing the games, so I guess you could call it poetic justice! I come from the school of thought where I would rather beat you fair and square on the field of play, rather than by invoking technicalities -but that's just me.)
Has anyone else ever had that penalty called on them, or called it on another team? If you had a tough road game upcoming, would you play the field card if available? I'm just curious...

[Campbell]

That's a tough call. If you lose a close game and think that extra 3 minutes of EMO could have made the difference then you might be kicking yourself for not calling them on it. To me it boils down to why the other team is not prepared. If a team's field is not to specs because they were just too lazy to make sure it was, then I think it is a lesson learned. But we all face our own field problems at some point either due to school admin, weather, or other things beyond our control. Those are instances where I think you just let it go. It is all part of the drill though, hosting a game at any level has responsibilities. If a team can't handle those responsibilites then they shouldn't compete.

[Kyle Berggren]

We send out a field waiver well in advance of the game, and if the team does not agree to it, we will move the game to a legal field, no matter the condition of it. I actually thought that it was changed to a 1 minute penalty, but who knows I've never called it.