Interesting. And disapointing. I admire the guy for taking a stand. I don't agree with it but I can certainly see why he (and UCSB fans) feel the way they do. A shame dissent is scrubbed when it doesn't follow conformity. Anyone cut-and-past the deleted post so we can put it here to allow it to live on? (And, of course, to tweek the NCAA. )
Google - Cached is your friend: By Drew Simonon November 24, 2010 12:35 PM The DI Men's NCAA Soccer Tournament is an event I always look forward to in November and December. It is a time for great teams to display their talent on a national level, rather than only playing teams in their conference. Their have been a variety of great moments in this edition of the tournament, including brilliant team play, exciting upsets, overtime and PK thrillers, and impressive individual displays. All of those feelings came to a screeching halt however after the conclusion of the UC-Santa Barbara Cal game on Sunday. Let me first preface this entry with the fact that I did not watch this game live. I have seen bits and pieces of the game, and the parts that I have seen were shown to me by non-biased soccer fans. I have watched all of the key parts that will be talked about in this entry and while I may not have seen the full match, I do believe I have seen enough to understand what all the fuss is about. This match between the two California teams was supposed to be a great display of American Soccer, with two schools that really enjoy their footy. Unfortunately, UCSB's season ended terribly, while Cal was a little lucky to survive. The first twenty minutes of the match started out calmly, even with Cal's Hector Jimenez earning a yellow card after nine minutes. But the game reached its breaking point just twenty-five minutes in after UCSB's Luis Silva went with a sweeping tackle on Cal's Servando Carrasco. Rightfully so, Carrasco was mad at Silva for a reckless and extremely dangerous challenge. However, Carrasco's immediate reaction saw him shove Silva to the ground, making contact with Silva's face. If you were not there or haven't seen the video, click here. Here is the blog's take on the incident. Silva's challenge was dangerous, and absolutely a foul. I don't believe you could argue the other way. He recklessly swung his leg at the player, and possibly with his studs up. I have received many comments that the player did get the ball first but that is a common misconception about the game. A basic rule at all levels of soccer is the following: "If a player slide tackles from the front, it will be considered at least "dangerous play" (which is an indirect kick foul), or kicking, or tripping, or "unsporting behavior", even if the ball is contacted, since it would at the least be reckless or dangerous." It may have been a yellow card or it may have been just a foul, but Silva did not deserve his marching orders. As for Carrasco, whose open-handed shove was just as embarrassing to the game as it was to himself, only received a yellow, despite a universally recognized rule (unless you are Samuel Eto'o) that any form of a strike against another opponent is an immediate dismissal. This rule is enforced at every age level and is enforced with a zero tolerance policy. The game was never the same after this moment as UCSB had been unfairly reduced to 10 men. The Gauchos continued to press on, and even snatched a goal through Michael Tetteh in the 81st minute just as the junior Midfielder was subbed on. However, Cal equalized 2 minutes from time on another controversial play. Cal sent a free kick into the UCSB box and the ref whistled that a Gaucho player had handled the ball, thus giving the Golden Bears a penalty kick which was converted by none other than Carrasco. The game went in to overtime where Cal once again converted late in the first period of overtime to win a shameful display of Soccer. After the match, three UCSB soccer players were shown red cards for dissent and allegedly making contact with the referee. According to Presidio Sports's Barry Punzal, UCSB Head Coach Tim Vom Steeg told the ref after the match, "If you run now, you'll be OK. Just please go ... leave, because you just ended our season on this." The Referee that day was Mike Kampmeinert, a native of Folsom, California, and someone who under the NCAA's guidelines, was not supposed to be out there that day. One must wonder how the NCAA dropped the ball on this and they owe an apology to the UC-Santa Barbara squad for an assignment error that caused them a tournament exit. Losing is a difficult process, especially when you probably should have won, but to verbally assault a ref, especially when you are the coach, is an unacceptable action. I did not see any of the moment's after the game ended but I have heard from various sources that some players threw balls at the referee, while another source alleged that some players pushed the ref. As the head coach, Vom Steeg should have rounded up his team after the match and brought them to the locker room. I do sympathize with the Gauchos and how the loss came about. After twenty-five minutes, Cal should have been reduced to 10 men, and UCSB should have had eleven, with Silva on a yellow card. However, their actions, including the coaches after the game, was embarrassing and shameful to their school. I have read that it was justified for the players to surround the ref after the contest, as the match was taken out of their hands and their hopes and dreams were shattered. The game was definitely changed by the referee's actions, but it is never justifiable to attack the ref after the match. It is an unfortunate part of sports, but these things happen. This was a game that was witnessed by not only adults and parents, but hundreds of children, and this was a terrible example set by the UCSB players. If UCSB feel's they were wronged, they should have petitioned the NCAA, rather than Vom Steeg attacking the NCAA through whatever media source will talk to him. While it is not likely, replays have happened in the world of soccer, and as a non-biased writer, I feel that the NCAA deserves to have this match played again. Stay tuned this week for Friday's Third Round preview and please feel free to leave a comment or send me an email at andrew.simon@cbsinteractive.com.
Indeed it is. Thanks. Here's the full copy: By Drew Simon on November 24, 2010 12:35 PM | The DI Men's NCAA Soccer Tournament is an event I always look forward to in November and December. It is a time for great teams to display their talent on a national level, rather than only playing teams in their conference. Their have been a variety of great moments in this edition of the tournament, including brilliant team play, exciting upsets, overtime and PK thrillers, and impressive individual displays. All of those feelings came to a screeching halt however after the conclusion of the UC-Santa Barbara Cal game on Sunday. Let me first preface this entry with the fact that I did not watch this game live. I have seen bits and pieces of the game, and the parts that I have seen were shown to me by non-biased soccer fans. I have watched all of the key parts that will be talked about in this entry and while I may not have seen the full match, I do believe I have seen enough to understand what all the fuss is about. This match between the two California teams was supposed to be a great display of American Soccer, with two schools that really enjoy their footy. Unfortunately, UCSB's season ended terribly, while Cal was a little lucky to survive. The first twenty minutes of the match started out calmly, even with Cal's Hector Jimenez earning a yellow card after nine minutes. But the game reached its breaking point just twenty-five minutes in after UCSB's Luis Silva went with a sweeping tackle on Cal's Servando Carrasco. Rightfully so, Carrasco was mad at Silva for a reckless and extremely dangerous challenge. However, Carrasco's immediate reaction saw him shove Silva to the ground, making contact with Silva's face. If you were not there or haven't seen the video, click here. Here is the blog's take on the incident. Silva's challenge was dangerous, and absolutely a foul. I don't believe you could argue the other way. He recklessly swung his leg at the player, and possibly with his studs up. I have received many comments that the player did get the ball first but that is a common misconception about the game. A basic rule at all levels of soccer is the following: "If a player slide tackles from the front, it will be considered at least "dangerous play" (which is an indirect kick foul), or kicking, or tripping, or "unsporting behavior", even if the ball is contacted, since it would at the least be reckless or dangerous." It may have been a yellow card or it may have been just a foul, but Silva did not deserve his marching orders. As for Carrasco, whose open-handed shove was just as embarrassing to the game as it was to himself, only received a yellow, despite a universally recognized rule (unless you are Samuel Eto'o) that any form of a strike against another opponent is an immediate dismissal. This rule is enforced at every age level and is enforced with a zero tolerance policy. The game was never the same after this moment as UCSB had been unfairly reduced to 10 men. The Gauchos continued to press on, and even snatched a goal through Michael Tetteh in the 81st minute just as the junior Midfielder was subbed on. However, Cal equalized 2 minutes from time on another controversial play. Cal sent a free kick into the UCSB box and the ref whistled that a Gaucho player had handled the ball, thus giving the Golden Bears a penalty kick which was converted by none other than Carrasco. The game went in to overtime where Cal once again converted late in the first period of overtime to win a shameful display of Soccer. After the match, three UCSB soccer players were shown red cards for dissent and allegedly making contact with the referee. According to Presidio Sports's Barry Punzal, UCSB Head Coach Tim Vom Steeg told the ref after the match, "If you run now, you'll be OK. Just please go ... leave, because you just ended our season on this." The Referee that day was Mike Kampmeinert, a native of Folsom, California, and someone who under the NCAA's guidelines, was not supposed to be out there that day. One must wonder how the NCAA dropped the ball on this and they owe an apology to the UC-Santa Barbara squad for an assignment error that caused them a tournament exit. Losing is a difficult process, especially when you probably should have won, but to verbally assault a ref, especially when you are the coach, is an unacceptable action. I did not see any of the moment's after the game ended but I have heard from various sources that some players threw balls at the referee, while another source alleged that some players pushed the ref. As the head coach, Vom Steeg should have rounded up his team after the match and brought them to the locker room. I do sympathize with the Gauchos and how the loss came about. After twenty-five minutes, Cal should have been reduced to 10 men, and UCSB should have had eleven, with Silva on a yellow card. However, their actions, including the coaches after the game, was embarrassing and shameful to their school. I have read that it was justified for the players to surround the ref after the contest, as the match was taken out of their hands and their hopes and dreams were shattered. The game was definitely changed by the referee's actions, but it is never justifiable to attack the ref after the match. It is an unfortunate part of sports, but these things happen. This was a game that was witnessed by not only adults and parents, but hundreds of children, and this was a terrible example set by the UCSB players. If UCSB feel's they were wronged, they should have petitioned the NCAA, rather than Vom Steeg attacking the NCAA through whatever media source will talk to him. While it is not likely, replays have happened in the world of soccer, and as a non-biased writer, I feel that the NCAA deserves to have this match played again. Stay tuned this week for Friday's Third Round preview and please feel free to leave a comment or send me an email at andrew.simon@cbsinteractive.com.
I took this a step further by downloading the NCAA manual from here (registration may be required): http://www.ncaapublications.com/productdownloads/D111.pdf The manual lists 9 purposes of the association. Here are the ones I wish to highlight: (b) To uphold the principle of institutional control of, and responsibility for, all intercollegiate sports in conformity with the constitution and bylaws of this Association; (c) To encourage its members to adopt eligibility rules to comply with satisfactory standards of scholarship, sportsmanship and amateurism; (d) To formulate, copyright and publish rules of play governing intercollegiate athletics; (f ) To supervise the conduct of, and to establish eligibility standards for, regional and national athletics events under the auspices of this Association; (h) To legislate, through bylaws or by resolutions of a Convention, upon any subject of general concern to the members related to the administration of intercollegiate athletics; and All of these "reasons for being" relate in one way or another to this situation particularly (f). Lots of talk about rules and eligibility. There are over 400 pages of rules, a great many of which deal with eligibility requirements yet the NCAA does not follow its own.
Ahh yes. I remember way back when in 2008 the NCAA screwed over Akron through an administrative decision. In the second round, Akron's field got hit by a blizzard and was unplayable, so the game was moved one mile down the road to a local high school football stadium. Akron won and advanced, but immediately after the game word came in that the NCAA decided to move our next game to the opponent's field despite us being the better seed. This was a full week before the game and they had no way of knowing whether the field would be playable by then (it was). So it was moved 500 miles away to be played in what could only be described as an ice hurricane while our home field sat idle, dry, and bathed in a warm sun. We lost that game. I blame the NCAA for making a rash decision and then taking the week off before anybody could be contacted to appeal (it was Thanksgiving week). There's nothing we could do, and had to accept it. We will never forget being screwed by them. The complaining from fans was epic. But eventually we moved on, and the team used it as motivation to go to the NCAA championship game the next season.