NCAA time-out rule
 

In another thread, RoyalsCoach mentioned several errors that officials had made in his/her games this season. One of those was the following:

Just wanted to point out that the official may have been confused by NCAA 5-11-1a:

True, he did not specify whether the rule set was Fed or NCAA. The approach taken was Federation.

No one but me is bothered by this, or thinks it's interesting? :confused:

That universal, overwhelming silence that you are receiving is the officiating community banding together and telling you to.....wait for it.....shut up.

I know! That's why I'm surprised. So for all you college officials out there, you're actually going to grant a time-out that is requested when the ball is in mid-air on a pass between teammates?!?!?! Or when the defense bats the ball away from the dribbler and it's loose on the floor with opponents trying to secure control?!?!?!

Nobody sees this as a problem?

Yes, 5-9.4 is poorly worded when read in a vacuum. But when read relative to the entirety of 5-9, it's purpose is to emphasize that coaches can only call time-out when there are in team control.

Oh?

Then why can't you grant a coach a TO during an interrupted dribble, as per rule 5-10-1(b)? There's still team control at that time, isn't there?

But that is exactly whats-his-name's point.

The rule for a granting the coach a TO is different from the rule for granting a player a TO.

Obviously not what they meant.

I'm not saying you can. I'm talking about the wording of this particular rule/article. I already said it was worded poorly. I did not say coaches can call time-outs anytime they are in team control.

It's poorly written b/c in reality there is no reason for 5-9.3 & 5-9.4 to be separate articles. Otherwise, are we saying HC can call a time-out while a pass in flight, but a player can't?

Um, no, actually NCAA rule 5.11-1(a) says that coaches can call time-outs anytime that they are in team control, as Scrappy pointed out.

The problem is that the NCAA is also saying in another rule(5-10-1b) that a coach <b>can't</b> call a time-out in this particular situation even though his team has control.

Why is that, JR be wondering?

Because the NCAA should have hired a short guy from Massachussets to write the rulebook that way we wouldn't have these conundrums. ;)

But, I don't think the spirit and intent of these poorly written articles is for the coach to be able to call a time-out while a pass in the air. At least I know I'm not going to grant it.