Last night we had our Interpretations Clinic. After the football rules review, the Executive Director of the State Association mentioned that they had instituted a new admin rule related to sportsmanship. It applies to all sponsored sports. It says "Any varsity team accumulating three (3) or more player and/or coach disqualifications for flagrant unsportsmanlike conduct prior to the start of the state tournament will not be permitted to participate in same. Seeded teams will forfeit their right to compete if a disqualification limit is reached prior to the start of the tournament for their team."

Any other states have such a rule?

Whoa, talk about strict. Is sportsmanship a problem up your way? We do not have such a rule in Nebraska. We only have the sit-out rule for ejected coaches and players.

REPLY: No. Actually our DQs have been going down year over year. It's just that they don't want to give up any of the progress they've made. And they want to continue to press on all participants the need to act in a professional, sportsmanlike manner. And we also have a "sit-out" policy for coaches and players. I just quoted the new team-cumulative rule that we heard about last night. We actually have a whole s***load of sportsmanship rules, etc.

Georgia
 

We only have the "sit-out" rule for ejections of players and coaches.

I am from south Jersey. I don't think we have an unsportsmanlike problem in the state because the NJSIAA is firm in it's drive for good sportsmanship conduct and enforcement of polcies regarding conduct of players , coaches and officials.

Do they have an appeal process if a team thinks that someone was wrongly DQed. For instance, I can see a fight erupting and the total of three surpassed in one night. In the confusion, the officials might DQ the wrong players or coaches.

They didn't mention anything about appeals. I'm in South Jersey and heard the same thing from our NJSIAA people. In our rules interp. meeting they made it real clear that we must be "100% absolutely certain" before we DQ anyone.

Also, it's only flagrant stuff as Bob mentions. So if A1 taunts during a run then later in the game decides to spike the football after a TD he's DQ'd, but we don't send in paperwork so he's not suspended for the next game nor does it get called to the state's attention.

In NJ there is no appeal of a DQ. If you DQ a player they must sit out 10% of there season (FB= 1 game, BB= 2 games etc). If film shows a bad DQ the player is still out!

When I said no appeal in NJ, I should have said by the player, the school, the parents or the parents attorney. In addition the calling official CANNOT rescind the DQ!!!!

It was stated at the meeting that the NJSIAA would not be surprised if a sued by a team that was declared ineligible from any post season tournament.

REPLY: Right! Jim Loper said that they fully expect to land in court some day as a result of this policy.

Interesting - AHSAA tracks DQ's of an indivial but not the team. It is either 2 or 3 DQ's in any sport, that individual is declared ineligible for all sports for the school year.

The school is subject to fines and probation for the coaches or fans actions.

I had two seperate DQ's last night on one team. They would be in trouble in NJ!