College and professional sports have many different rules and regulations. The games still basically look the same, and the modifications usually just add nuance and uniqueness that distinguish sports of the same name from one another at varying levels of play.
But after seeing the referees nullify the men's soccer team's last-ditch, game-tying goal attempt Sept. 19 against UNC-Wilmington, it's obvious some rules just need to be adopted by all levels of play. The referees ruled Mike Grella's shot didn't go into the net before the clock expired. In international play, the game would not have been whistled dead when time ran out but rather when the defense had cleared the ball and the referees had determined the offensive threat was extinguished.
The outcome of that game got me thinking about other differences between pro and college sports that detract in one way or another from fan enjoyment-and overall fairness. Including the soccer clock, there are three rule discrepancies that I feel should be changed.
- Soccer timekeeping
I was never really tuned into the soccer scene until this summer, but I became quickly hooked after watching just a few games in the 2006 FIFA World Cup. Even after Team USA made an early exit and there was little left for me to cheer for, I just rooted for games to come down to the wire.
Given the low scoring nature of the sport, every match I watched seemed to come down the final minutes. I knew of the concept of stoppage time, but I was shocked when I learned that not only was its length seemingly arbitrary but there was no final buzzer.
Every team sport in America outside of baseball-which has no clock at all-ends in a race to the final horn. Officially, a soccer referee is supposed to end the game once stoppage time expires, but in reality the referee does not blow the final whistle until the offensive team's final scoring threat is ended and the ball is cleared by the defense. There was something so captivating about watching a soccer team trying to keep the ball in the offensive third knowing a loss of possession could end the game.
It's absurd the NCAA would also Americanize one of the elements that defines the sport and whistle the game dead the instant the clock expires. I'm not arguing that Duke should get that game against UNC-W back, but I am pleading with the NCAA to can its clock management and just adopt the style that has made soccer the world's most popular game.
- Football overtime
Neither the NCAA nor the NFL has a perfect policy, but anybody who watches even one NFL overtime game will agree with me that it's at the very least unfair.
A coin-flip decides which team gets first possession of the ball in a sudden-death overtime. More often than not, the team that wins the toss wins the game, and it's very common for the winning team to score a field goal on its first possession.
The NCAA overtime has some flaws, but it is inherently much fairer than the NFL policy that rewards winning a random coin-toss far too much.
In college overtime, one team gets the ball at the 25-yard line and attempts to score as many points as possible on the possession. The opponent then has the chance to match that score or win the game if it can better the opponent's mark. If after one round there is still a stalemate, the order of possession reverses and continues to do so until a winner is determined.
Maybe the NFL doesn't have to adopt the NCAA's exact rule here, but the college policy is clearly superior to its professional counterpart.
- Advancing the basketball after a timeout
In the NBA, a team can call a timeout after a basket has been scored and elect to move the ball to midcourt for the inbounds pass. In the NCAA, a coach can call a timeout to draw up a last-second play to tie or win the game, but the team has to start from under the hoop where the opposition just hit its basket.
Hill-to-Laettner and McRoberts-to-Dockery, enough said.
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