Between 2016 and 2023, Arkansas played in the final of the SEC tournament 7 of 8 years, and lost every one of those matches. Even crazier, they've been one of the highest scoring teams in America for several years--yet in those 7 tourney losses they scored only 4 goals total, and never more than 1 in any of the seven matches, and got shut out in three straight finals.
Just one way of evaluating SEC teams as they have performed over time, here are the teams in order of their median Balanced RPI ranks over the last 7 years (which is a better measure of team strength than the NCAA RPI ranks): ArkansasU SouthCarolinaU TennesseeU TexasU Auburn Vanderbilt MississippiState TexasA&M LSU AlabamaU GeorgiaU MississippiU FloridaU OklahomaU MissouriU KentuckyU
Watching a game between Alabama and South Carolina being ruined by its official, and finding out late that it's Samantha Martinez ... someone who is near and dear to UNC fan's heart. She just overturned an onside goal called on the field on a video review that looked onside and had plenty enough doubt in it where it shouldn't have been overturned as a clear an obvious error. I was left speechless, even as someone rooting for the team that gave up the goal in Alabama (former Tar Heel playing for them.) I'm curious about how someone like Martinez travels, I always assume she's a west coast official. Is she "just" an SEC official now, did they get sick of her and dump her on the worst officiated league in the country ... or are there no league dedicated officials? If not ... how does SEC officiating continue to be absolutely terrible year after year and have the reputation it does?
What did Martinez do to upset UNC fans? I don't know how officiating works. Are there officials who work only games in one conference--or do they work games across conferences? Aren't there some aspects of the offside rule that are a little wonky when involving players who were peripheral to initial action?
Stephanie Martinez was in charge of the '22 Title Game. My understand of officiating might be a little colored as a basketball fan who knows that certain officials only work certain conferences in that sport... but I don't know if that's true for soccer. However, if it's not true ... how did the SEC develop the reputation that it has for officiating that allows ... how to put this kindly ... significantly more physical play. There are SEC folks that are even proud of the "hard standard" set in the conference, caring little about the obvious impact it has on SEC teams in November and December. When it comes to why the offside ruling shocked me, I'll make a comparison to a call last year that heavily benefited UNC as a result of the "technicalities" involved. Those technicalities are 1) the AR should give the benefit of the doubt to the attacking player, 2) if it's close but they still think it's offside, AR's are instructed to allow plays to continue to their conclusion, and 3) Video review is clear in that only a clear and obvious error can be overturned. During the quarterfinals of the NCAA Tournament, Penn State scored a goal (it would have been the second) that was ruled offside. The AR correctly allowed the play to continue to its conclusion before raising their flag. The replay review took a *LONG* time and everybody was convinced it would be overturned, but it wasn't. It's a long established precedent that unless you are absolutely certain, you don't overturn the call on the field. That game in general highlighted the absolute tyranny of the call on the field, with three or four video reviews that "looked" like a call should be made, but there simply wasn't enough evidence to overturn the onfield call. The offside call, a red car for a kick out, and what looked like a handball against PSU in the box, all getting dismissed fairly quickly because there simply wasn't enough clear evidence of an error. Fast forward to last night and you had a call on the field of a good goal for South Carolina and a significantly superior angle, compared to the PSU decision, that showed it was probably the correct call. The Alabama commentators were *stunned* it was overturned. It was essentially Martinez throwing her AR under the bus for no apparent reason.
each league has an individual that is in charge of the officials. His/Her job is to make sure that all the teams in the league have officials for their games. they have a pool of officials that work for them and he/she assigns the games. most officials will work for several of these people and could be assigned games. the referee assignor has a computer system they can assign the refs to and the individual has the opportunity to accept or decline the game.
You are incorrect with respect to point #2. ARs in college soccer are instructed to raise the flag when they think that an offside offense has occured. The Rules Committee wants to avoid unnecessary collisions between attackers and goalkeepers as a result of delayed flags.
That is news to me, and not one that seems to match the reality of how the game is being called recently. Is it a relatively new rule?
So I've had a look at some of the recent rule changes and don't really see anything about changes to how offside is handled to avoid player collisions. I do however see where I am likely conflating the reasoning behind one rule for another. The "wait and see" rule is about waiting to see if the player who is offside will make a play to influence the play or realize they're offside and avoid influencing the play. I've always had in my head for delayed offside calls were for VAR. That does appear to be the case at the higher levels and I've seen no rule change or discussion to suggest it doesn't exist at the NCAA level. If anything, the NCAA has been consistently bringing the college rule book closer to the standard of the IFAB in recent years. I am still curious about the rule you are referencing, because no discussion or article that I can find seems to reference any kind of desire to avoid collisions that is unique to the college level. Simultaneously, everywhere I look there seems to be a general agreement that in VAR enabled games, AR's are generally encouraged to let plays develop to see if a goal is scored before they raise their flags. From the perspective of a fan I prefer that and hope they aren't killing promising attacks just because they're worried it might result in a collision between players ... I mean ... that's the sport, isn't it?
Rather than look for a specific NCAA rule ( the rule book does emphasize player safety), it might be better to look at advice to referees from NIOSA, the national intercollegiate organization of soccer officials . I think a relevant passage is here: " The most important factor is for the Referee Team to have a thorough pre-game discussion about how offside will be managed. Using the “better late- right; than early- wrong” theory works in most cases. An Assistant Referee that snaps a flag up too quickly may bring the game into controversy when the player receiving the ball turns out NOT to be the player in the offside position. Be careful with waiting, however, in the circumstance where the ball goes through and the offside player is a speedy forward who will next bear down on the opposing goalkeeper! In this circumstance, it is better to call the offside early (assuming it occurs) to prevent a collision that will most often lead next to misconduct issues! In general, Referees should support the decisions of the Assistant Referee when the correct application of the rule is applied. Should the referee choose to waive off an offside indication, such as times when the ball is easily collected by the goalkeeper and a punt would be more acceptable, it is wise for the Referee to announce loud enough the reasoning WHY the flag was waived. ” calling offside early to avoid collisions and waving off offside if a keeper easily collects the ball are both covered. this isn’t anything new. It’s in the legacy portion of the NISOA site, apparently from 2009. https://legacy.nisoa.com/instruction/news/2009/07/23/applying-offside/ as to video review, in games where it is available, a referee can review instances where a goal is scored and offside is a close decision, according to changes for 2024-2025. https://ncaaorg.s3.amazonaws.com/ch...ccer/rules/2024-25PRXSO_MajorRulesChanges.pdf
https://ncaaorg.s3.amazonaws.com/ch...ccer/rules/2025PRXSO_QuestionsInterpsVol2.pdf Please note item #1
With all due respect to NISOA, the NCAA has a Secretary-Rules Editor who is responsible for interpretations and a National Coordinator who provides direction to officials. The material cited from 2009 was well before video review was a thing.
fine, but the association doesn’t work in a vacuum. The instructions to referees are all vetted with the rules committee. If they see something in instructions that run counter to ncaa policy, they have not been shy about letting referees know, especially when it runs counter to IFAB. I’ll cite St least the first five points of the most recent rules changes cited in the document above, which includes what is reviewable. rule 11 in the ncaa rules covers a lot about what is or isn’t offside. It doesn’t say anything at all about procedure. That’s left to the referees association and the referees. Without the association to quote, there isn’t anything at all to argue about with respect to how referees and assistants flag offside. https://cdn1.sportngin.com/attachments/document/18d0-3216650/2024-2025_Rule_Book.pdf
All right then, that really clarifies the point ... "there are no VAR delayed flags" ... ... and posted yesterday. Talk about a timely update for the sake of our conversation!
Getting back on topic a little bit, the Penn State offside call that I am referencing is here. Take note of the player who has her hand in the air at the start of the sequence. She is the player deemed to have been offside when the ball was last kicked forward by Penn State... and with the replay, especially the one closest down the line, you can't help but think that ... dang ... she's onside. My assumption for why it was sustained continues to be that the angle was just bad enough that you couldn't say for 100% certainty that the heel of the player who received the ball wasn't offside... maybe you could say 99%, but not 100. Thus it was not a clear and obvious error, and you could tell they grappled with it for a while. Severely conflicts with the decision last night in Alabama. I am reminded watching that there was a lot going on during this play that confused a bunch of people, including I wonder the AR themself. Which player was offside? When? Did the UNC defenders touch constitute a deflection or a controlled touch that would have nullified offside?
That has been the guidance since offside was added to the list of reviewable plays prior to the 2024 season.
In the play above, there is only one Penn State player in an offside position when her teammate kicks the ball, this is the player at the top of the penalty area arc. Everyone else is onside. The offside position determination has to be made here. The question of whether the play by the UNC defender made a deliberate play on the ball is irrelevant, for the simple reason that the Penn State player who got the ball and scored was not offside when her teammate played the ball. This was an incorrect call and was evaluated as such by those in charge of NCAA Soccer officiating.
I don't disagree. I also believe it was an incorrect call ... it happens. My point was that video review wasn't sufficient to prove conclusively that it was the incorrect call, even though it really looks obvious to us. The entire premise here is that the call on the field has a lot of weight, and I used the PSU game as a prime example to show how ... unexpected ... the reversal of a good goal in the Alabama vs South Carolina game on Sunday was. We've instead gone off the rails a little bit. *scratches back of neck*
The error in this case was the refs got too focused on the play by the defender and lost the original kick point by the attacker. It is not that the video was inconclusive. It is that they looked at the wrong thing.
In the same areas that the memo I quoted was published. It was accessible to all officials and coaches.
That memo that you quoted was published on Sunday. I'm asking about any documentation or instruction given to AR's and officials about how they should handle offside now that it was reviewable, back when the major rule change was made in 2024.
@Midwest Ref you are awesome and helpful @babranski on this thread, you have been the opposite. You've decided to personalize an official and name her publicly with your criticism and are also clearly not privy to current NCAA rules and their application. Sign up at RefQuest and start watching videos if you really care about quality officiating and want to see and participate in discussion and debates there. Otherwise, find other threads to pollute with this stuff. You seem to speak for a lot of UNC fans when you started by saying about this official "...someone who is near and dear to UNC fan's heart." That statement and sentiment says a lot more about you than any official. Have a great day.