NCAA considers changing IP penalty

[Skahtboi]

Originally Posted by MigoP

Very good answer. She doesn't get chances, she continues to violate until she complies with the rule. There are no limits on the amount of rule violations you can commit. Do as many as you like, but understand we will call them all. Most umps won't make the call because of the ramifacations not just from the coaches, but from their fellow umpires who are afraid to make the call. Too many old school umps still consider FP softball a girls rec sport. It's not and it's coming of age with more TV exposure. Softball umpires will now start to be scrutinized more heavily as their counterparts in baseball are. Softball is growing in leaps and bounds now. We better be ready to take on the challenge of changing the mentality of the sport from 10 years ago. Slow pitch is gone, fast pitch is here to stay.

10 years ago??? Son, I have been calling FP for a couple of decades now, and believe me, there was the same emphasis on calling IP's back then as there are now. Odd that the NCAA decides to make a POE on calling IP's, and suddenly the weak minded believe that there is a new movement taking place. This "movement" is as old as the hills.

I have been an advocate of making women's and JO softball pitching rules more in line with men's. This would go a long way in eliminating much of the controversy. However, if a coach driven rule set like NCAA's is going to try to water down the IP rule, then they should just abolish it as it is written altogether. Allow the leap. Allow a step outside of the 24 inch lane. (Oh...but wait. That would ruin those cute little lines the coaches demanded just a couple of years ago.) Allow anything that doesn't technically deceive the batter. That, or leave things as they are and allow us to enforce the rule without a lot of media controversy when it is done. IMO, this past year, there were many IP's that could have been called that weren't.

While I cannot speak for the rest of the country, it appeared that around here NCAA officials were doing a good job of focusing on the IP as per the SUIP directive. Now that the coaches have started to realize just how often their pitcher's are illegal, they once again want to change the rule. I find it odd that one rule can cause such controversy.