Tag: 2016 Captains’ Meeting

2017 Proposals Ballot Results

CHICAGO – Office of the Director of Officiating.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Below are the results of the preferential election for the 2016/2017 NCDA Rulebook and select Policies. The Rulebook is scheduled to be released prior to the start of the 2017 Season. Extra special thanks to the 22 Member Teams that submitted ballots, with only one Member Team missing.

Rule Proposals

R.4) Early Overtime – If a point is scored with less than 4 minutes remaining in the second half, and the resulting Score is tied, should Overtime go into effect?
A. Yes, add a condition to call Early Overtime. [NEW]

R.5) Blocking – If a ball deflects off the blocking ball, can the ricochet cause an out?
[Final Decision] B. A block must be clean for the blocking player. If a ricochet still hits the blocking player, the blocking player is out. [NEW]

R.6) LAZ – Should the Legitimate Attempt Zone (LAZ) be a tighter zone?
A. The LAZ should be the Target’s full body reach in any of the 3 dimensions. For a 6 foot tall player, this is about 7 feet from left to right. [NEW]

R.7) Attack Line – How far should the Attack Line be?
C. 30 feet from the baseline. [Current]

R.8) Rosters – Should rosters have fewer players?
C. Roster size is 10-20. Active players are 10-15. [Current]

R.11) What happens when the Score becomes a 4 point differential?
A. The lower scoring team must consent to call the Match. If no consent, gameplay continues and all future points count. If the match is called, the Score is final but teams may play out the remaining time on a running clock, unbound by the rules. [NEW]

R.13) Burden Throw – Should a team relieve a Burden to reset the Shot Clock?
B. No, just one Legitimate Attempt Throw resets the Shot Clock for the Throwing team.. Each team has a Shot Clock. [Current]

Policy Proposals

P.1) Should there be a required break between multiple matches?
A. For safety precautions, a team must take a minimum 30 minute break after playing 3 consecutive matches. [NEW]

P.2) Limits on Captains’ Meeting proposals
B. The deadline to submit proposals is one week prior to Nationals. There are no limits to the amount of proposals. [Current]
Note: This initial result was a tie. The Executive Board votes to break the tie. Vote Result: 4 of 5 voted to keep the current policy, no limits (P2B). However, the one week prior to Nationals deadline will be enforced this year.

P.3) Lowering the required number of matches on Saturday for scheduling flexibility.
B. Participants will play a minimum of 3 matches on Saturday, but will be scheduled for more if time allows. [Current]

P.5) Should the League purchase two trophies?
B. No, not at this time.

P.7) Should the Executive Board be given a vote whenever Member Teams vote?
B. No, only Member Teams. [Current]

See a more extensive report after the jump.  Continue reading “2017 Proposals Ballot Results”

2016 Captains’ Meeting Minutes

See original google doc for full minutes. Abbreviated provided here:

Nationals 2016: April 16-17, 2016
Hosted by Bowling Green State University Dodgeball Club

Captains’ Meeting Minutes

Present Member Teams: Akron, BGSU, BW, CMU, DePaul, GVSU, JMU, Kent, MSU, Ohio, OSU, PSU, SVSU, Towson, UK, UWP, VCU, WKU

  • Saturday Results, Sunday’s Seeding and Schedule – TS & ZM
  • Host Bids for Nationals 2017 – TS
  • Summer Events – DePaul & Kent
  • Admin Announcements
  • League Growth
  • Nominations for NCDA Officer Positions
  • Rankings/Standings Changes
  • Presidential Suggestions for the Future of the Organization
    • Sponsoships
    • Executive Board reductions
    • New Divisions (6v6 program, SkyZone partnerships)
  • 2017 Proposed Changes for NCDA Rulebook

Proposals approved for consideration in pre-season vote

R.1. Shot Clock reset for receiving team – DC
R.4. Early Overtime – ZM
R.5. Clean Blocking / Fettig and Peters Proposals
DF: Clean Blocking: Thrown balls are live off of an opponent’s blocking ball.
WP: NOTE: This is a proposition to change the same rule that Dylan Fettig has proposed above, only slightly different.
R.6. Legitimate Attempt Zone redefinition – ZB
Change the definition of the Legitimate Attempt Zone (LAZ).
R.7. Move the Attack Line – KB
Attack line decrease from 30 ft. to 25 ft.
R.8. Roster Size redefintion – JS
Roster size down from 20 to 13, teams from 15v15 to 10v10. Legitimate JV league.
R.11. Calling a game at four point differential – CA
R.13. Burden Throw – The game is played with 9 balls – DF

Proposals that failed to achieve majority vote for consideration in pre-season vote

R.2. Rebound Catch – AP
R.3. Even Numbers Sub Rule of 2.3.1.2 Low numbers – ZM
R.9. Ball Increase to 12 balls – MW
R.10. Clock Changes – CA
R.12.  Catches bring two players in – WP

2017 Proposed Policies for NCDA Constitution

All proposals approved for consideration in pre-season vote, no proposals failed.

P.1. Consecutive Match Limit – MR

P.2. Rule/Policy Change Suggestions – JL

P.3. 2 Games on Saturday – ZM
Nationals is two things: the National Tournament (Section 4.3.4.6) and the extra-strength Non-Bracket Matches (Section 4.3.4.5). I propose a less stringent definition of Saturday’s required games, a minimum of two.

P.4. Changing Sunday’s Bracket Format:

P.4.1 [Link] AH: I would like to propose that championship Sunday be broken into two different tourneys. One tourney for the higher seeded teams and one for the lower seeded teams.  I do believe this would bring out the best competition in all teams on Sunday instead of waiting till the second or third round before competition heats up.

P.4.2 [Link] JS: Top 8 teams compete for the cup at nationals, the other teams would play round robin games on Sunday.

P.4.3 [Link] DF: Similarly to Jeff’s proposal I suggest that Sunday of nationals should be two separate brackets. However I think we should do it like world cup groupings for soccer.

P.5. Trophies for #1 in regular season and for most games played – DF

P.6. Ranking System
Editors Note: Ranking is defined by the Executive Board rather than Membership vote. However, input is encouraged and concerns are always addressed.

P.6.1 Gonzalez system exclusively – ZM
Move to exclusively using the Gonzalez system to rank teams, but adjust the season to season carry-over, involving reverting to the mean.

P.6.2 Reset Gonzalez Rankings – HF
Reset all Gonzalez rankings at the beginning of the year to the baseline average of 40.000
Rationale.

Proposal for a Burden Rule

Since it was mentioned in the recent podcast I will throw one more proposal out there.

Final (hopefully) Rule Proposal:

The game is played with 9 balls

The team that has more than 4 balls (majority) has 15 seconds to make throws until they rid themselves of the original number of balls that was >4.

So if team A has 6 balls they will have 15 seconds to throw at least two balls from their possession.

SITUATION: Team B throws 2 more balls at Team A after the count has started. Now Team A has 8, but they still only have to throw 3 because that was the original burden when the count started.

RATIONALE:

This rule would completely eliminate ball control focused stalling which is, in my opinion, the plague of the current Rulebook. With this rule you can expect to have at least 5 balls on your side of the court every other 15 seconds so there is no longer any reason to throw balls at the wall to try and get the bounce back.

Also, get ready for it, the dreaded LAZ would no longer be necessary! As long as you are giving the opposite team a majority of the balls you would reset the count.

It removes the need for two counters because only one side has a shot clock at a time (and we all know how people shy away from counting)

Proposal on catching counting as two in

Rule Proposal by Wes Peters:

Catches bring two players in.
Team catches now only save the player who was originally hit, and nobody comes in for the team catching team.

Honestly, if you wanna make the second part of this its own proposal too, that might not be half bad.

RATIONALE:

Catches aren’t valuable enough, and team catches (let’s assume that my version of the Clean Blocking rule passes) are now going to be way too frequent.

Encourages better throws since you know the penalty for throwing a catch is now doubled.

Speeds up the pace of the game when coupled with clean blocking.

I like catching. Please throw at me.

Proposal on calling a game at four point differential.

Rule Proposal by Caleb Arnold

I say we incorporate something like a run rule in baseball. If a team is up by four or more points by the time the second half of play begins or any time through the second half (so if a team goes up 4-0 halfway through the second half), that the team up by four is considered the winner. From much experience with this, I know that after going down by three or four points, most of the time the second half is played with random teams and what not so we might as well make it official. With that being said, this would be an easy rule to incorporate because it doesn’t change anything with the game play and doesn’t change much with what already happens.

Pros:

On big days like Nationals or four game events, if a team goes up 4-0 against a team where the final could be 6-0 or something higher, those games past four games wouldn’t need to be wasting the arms of players just to prove that they could tack more points on to the board.

This could also help with shortening game times like everyone has requested multiple times.

Cons:

A team that goes with let’s say 10 players that plays a team with a full roster and that goes down by 4 points in the first half every game would only play essentially 3 out of 6 halves on the day.

Proposal on Clock changes

Rule Proposal by Caleb Arnold

Extend the half time length to 10 minutes, run the clock through balls over, make a strict 1 minute break between each point with the clock running through that as well. For the half time extension to 10 minutes, this gives teams more of a time to rest, grab some water, tape fingers, etc. I know that a lot of proposals have been made to shorten game times but the next 2 adjustments will help that. A lot of time is wasted with random things happening between points (team discussion, grabbing water, peeing, etc.). Also, it shouldn’t take 2 referees and 2 timekeepers more than 1 minute to place 10 balls in their respective locations on the court with the help of some team members. Though team discussion may be cut, the extra 5 minutes during half time could allow for more team discussion for a strong second half. With balls over, a lot of slacking and playing around again wastes time. I’ve seen it take 2 minutes or so for teams to get 10 balls on one side and to finally start. For example, one of the longest games I was a part of was the Kent State/Baldwin Wallace game at Ohio Dodgeball Cup this year. I was the referee and an irregular amount of balls over happened. Though I was the referee and I take partial blame on this, the balls over constituted a lot of time. If instead the clock ran through this, the referee should make teams quit playing around and get ready. That or make a 30 second stop for balls over but it shouldn’t take as long as it does most of the time. With this being said, if referees stuck to these strict timing rules, games shouldn’t have to take up an hour and fifteen or twenty minutes.  Continue reading “Proposal on Clock changes”

Proposal to reset Gonzalez rating per season

Policy Proposal by Hunter Ford

Reset all Gonzalez rankings at the beginning of the year to the baseline average of 40.000

Rationale:

Obviously the biggest event of the season is Nationals, however that does not take away from the importance of the regular season as a whole. One of the things I have found an issue with this year is the ranking system which can determine seeding for Nationals, and more specifically the Gonzalez ranking system. In general I do find that it is an effective power rating system except on one front, the fact that it takes historical data into account.  Continue reading “Proposal to reset Gonzalez rating per season”

Proposal on Sunday Nationals Bracket

Similarly to Jeff’s proposal I suggest that Sunday of nationals should be two separate brackets. However I think we should do it like world cup groupings for soccer.

Teams from each region are randomly split into 4 groups, the teams in each group all play each other and the top two move onto the championship bracket Sunday while the rest compete in the secondary bracket. That way every single game would matter, every team has a chance to play for the title, and teams would be able to play more even competition throughout the weekend.

Proposal on Nationals Format

Proposal by Jeff Starr

Top 8 teams compete for the cup at nationals, the other teams would play round robin games on Sunday.

RATIONALE:

Undeniably the likely game of GV vs OU isn’t going to be anywhere near close and I don’t see why it should even be played.

The high seed must go through the motions of playing a game which adds more games to the total over the weekend. Playing a total of 7 if you go to the championship must be completely brutal for any thrower out there and eliminating one game that is going to be a blowout would make it easier on them.

The lower ranked teams would be able to play more dodgeball. Instead of being knocked out 1st round in a blowout they could play more teams and more importantly more teams that they could have a close games with.

I don’t believe any team below a 4 rank has ever won it all at nationals and I don’t see that changing anytime soon, so including the top 8 teams would be more than enough

Proposal for Sunday of Nationals

Proposal by Adam Hynes
I would like to propose that championship Sunday be broken into two different tourneys. One tourney for the higher seeded teams and one for the lower seeded teams.  I do believe this would bring out the best competition in all teams on Sunday instead of waiting till the second or third round before competition heats up.
I also believe this would lead more teams coming to nationals, make teams strive to get into the tourney for the best teams only and like stated before, better competition all around. I hope this gets discussed more at the captains meeting. Thank you.

Proposed Rule Change: Throw Line Distance

Proposed by Kevin Bailey

It’s pretty simple: What is the biggest issue with the current NCDA ruleset?  Most people would argue it is often too slow paced, or that there are not enough points scored each game.  People often complain about stall-ball, and I concur that this is a major concern for our league.

There have been many proposed rule changes that are intended to combat this issue, attempting to make games faster and more exciting.  Sure, there are countless ways to go about fixing the slow-paced style that plagues our league right now, but in my opinion, no rule change will be as beneficial as this one.  The throw line (attack line) needs to decrease from 30 ft. to 25 ft. in the rulebook. Continue reading “Proposed Rule Change: Throw Line Distance”