NCAA – Page 10 – North Platte Post Archive

NCAA Approves SEC Request for Replay in Postseason

Posted on March 13, 2014

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — The Southeastern Conference will use experimental instant replay rules during its conference baseball tournament in May.

The NCAA Baseball Rules Committee approved the SEC’s request to use replay Wednesday. Two other conferences — the West Coast Conference and the Atlantic Coast Conference — already gained approval to use replay at their tournaments.

The replay can be used for four situations:

—Deciding if an apparent home run is fair or foul.

—Deciding whether a batted ball is a home run or ground-rule double.

—Spectator interference plays involving home run balls.

—Deciding if a batted ball is fair or foul.

The same system was used at the College World Series in 2012 and 2013, though there were no reviews either year.

NCAA Selection Committee Faces Complex Choices

Posted on March 12, 2014

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — The NCAA tournament selection committee will have some tough choices this weekend.

It must determine where to seed Kansas in lieu of Joel Embiid’s back injury. It must evaluate where to put unbeaten Wichita State and how it views Syracuse, which has lost four of its last six. It must still find the top 36 at-large teams in a bracket that committee chairman Ron Wellman believes will be the most wide open he can remember.

And all of it must be finished by Sunday night.

Wellman told reporters Wednesday that committee members will be in touch with schools about injuries and may even come up with multiple brackets as a backup plan to help them deal with Sunday afternoon games.

Committee meetings begin Wednesday afternoon.

NCAA Panel Approves Change to Targeting Penalty

Posted on March 6, 2014March 7, 2014

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — An NCAA panel has approved a change to the targeting foul that would wipe out the 15-penalty when video review overturns the ejection of a player.

The targeting rule was implemented by the NCAA last season. When a player was flagged for targeting an opponent’s head with a hit, he was disqualified from the game and his team penalized 15 yards. The foul was reviewed by replay officials and the ejection could be overturned — but the 15-yard penalty stood. This confused players, coaches and fans.

The football rules committee last month passed a proposal to no longer enforce the 15-yard penalty when the ejection is overturned, as long as another foul has not been committed. The playing rules oversight panel approved it Thursday.

The change goes into effect next season.

NCAA, Conferences are Sued over Scholarship Value

Posted on March 5, 2014

A West Virginia football player is suing the NCAA and five major conferences, alleging they have violated antitrust laws by agreeing to cap the value of an athletic scholarship at less than the actual cost of attendance.

The lawsuit was filed Wednesday in federal court in San Francisco. Lead attorneys Steve Berman and Bruce Simon also have been involved in cases challenging the NCAA’s ability to sell college athletes’ likeness to video-game makers.

The proposed class-action lawsuit seeks to represent former Football Bowl Subdivision scholarship players who have played since February 2010.

The lawsuit said former West Virginia player Shawne Alston had to take out a $5,500 loan to cover the difference between his scholarship and actual costs of attendance.

Spokeswoman Stacey Osburn said the NCAA had no immediate comment.

10-Second Rule Withdrawn by NCAA Rules Committee

Posted on March 5, 2014

NEW YORK (AP) — The NCAA football rules committee tabled a proposal Wednesday that would have penalized offenses for snapping the ball before 10 seconds had run off the 40-second play clock.

After a conference call, the panel agreed not to send the so-called 10-second rule to the playing rules oversight panel for approval Thursday.

NCAA national coordinator of officials Rogers Redding says withdrawing the proposal allows “time to gather more information from the medical community and allow time for a broader discussion of the implications of that change.”

The proposal, touted as a move to protect players by slowing fast-break offenses, infuriated many coaches.

Redding also says a new proposal was passed to expand roughing the passer to include “forcible” hits to the knees or below.

10-Second Rule to Go Up for NCAA Approval Thursday

Posted on March 5, 2014

NEW YORK (AP) — A proposed rule change that would penalize college football offenses for snapping the ball before 10 seconds had run off the 40-second play clock is scheduled to be reviewed one last time by an NCAA committee on Wednesday.

The conference call by the football rules committee is a routine step in the process, but also the last opportunity for the proposal to be withdrawn before it goes to the playing rules oversight panel on Thursday.

If the panel approves the proposal, the rule would go into effect next season.

The proposed change was made to address player-safety concerns held by some coaches who say hurry up, no-huddle offenses that increase the number of plays in games and limit defensive substitutions put players at greater risk for injuries.

Springsteen to Headline March Madness Music Fest

Posted on March 4, 2014March 4, 2014

NEW YORK (AP) — Bruce Springsteen will headline the NCAA March Madness Music Festival next month in Dallas.

Springsteen and the E Street Band will close the free, three-day festival on April 6 at Reunion Park, the downtown lot where the NCAA Final Four was played in 1986. Pop-rock trio fun. will perform ahead of the Boss.

Jason Aldean will kick off the festival on April 4. Fellow country star Tim McGraw and the Killers take the stage on April 5.

Tickets for the festival are on a first-come, first-serve basis each day.

Additional performers will be announced at a later date.

College basketball’s Division I semifinal and championship games will be played at the Dallas Cowboys’ massive stadium in Arlington.

NCAA OK with Dayton Playing in First Four at Home

Posted on February 27, 2014

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Every March, the University of Dayton hosts the NCAA’s First Four, four games over two days which open the annual 68-team extravaganza.

What would happen if one of those eight teams was the host Flyers?

As it turns out, the NCAA doesn’t have a problem with the long-shot possibility of Dayton playing on its home court.

NCAA selection committee chair Ron Wellman says there are always partisan crowds in the NCAA tournament, even though teams don’t play on their home floor anymore. So it’s no big deal.

For his part, Flyers coach Archie Miller says his team is willing to travel the half mile to its own arena or even to Russia — as long as it’s in the field.

NCAA: Players Who Go Into Stands to be Ejected

Posted on February 20, 2014

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — The NCAA has clarified a rule that allows for an automatic ejection for basketball players who go into the stands and commit an “unsporting act.”

In a memo sent to conference officiating coordinators Monday, the men’s basketball rules committee said a player will be charged with a flagrant, noncontact foul 2 and will be ejected. The opposing team is given two free throws and the ball.

The change comes after Oklahoma State’s Marcus Smart went into the stands at Texas Tech on Feb. 8 and shoved a fan who called him a “piece of crap.” He was given a technical foul for unsportsmanlike conduct but was not ejected.

The Big 12 said there was no rule for officials to eject Smart, but the conference suspended Smart for three games.

Rules Chair: No Need For Rule if no Safety Issue

Posted on February 18, 2014

The chairman of the NCAA Football Rules Committee says a proposal to prohibit snapping the ball until at least 10 seconds run off the 40-second play clock should not go forward if there’s no hard evidence showing up-tempo offenses endanger the safety of defensive players.

Air Force coach Troy Calhoun is the chairman. He said Tuesday he has yet to see a medical study linking the rapid pace of an offense to potential health issues for defensive players.

The comment period for the proposal ends March 3. The Playing Rules Oversight Commission, which meets March 6, would have to approve the proposal.

This is a non-rules change year for the NCAA, but exceptions can be made for rules that affect player safety.