The Texas football Longhorns aren't the only ones to have their postseason dreams dashed by poor implementation of a set of suspect NCAA rules. A hearty Cleveland Frowns salute to the University of Akron Zips men's soccer team who fell victim to some highly questionable decisionmaking by the NCAA that stripped them of their rightly-earned home field advantage in the NCAA championship tournament on this Thanksgiving weekend.The Zips, who've become a national soccer powerhouse in recent years, earned the fifth overall seed in this year's postseason tourney. After #4 seed Michigan State lost in the second round, the Zips were guaranteed home field advantage through the quarterfinals of the 48-team tournament -- until things took a turn for the worse.
Due to inclement weather in Northeast Ohio, the Zips' grass field in Akron was unplayable for last Wednesday's second round match with Ohio State, so they played on the fine turf surface at St. Vincent-St. Mary's complex, seemingly with no problems. After the Zips won that match 1-0 in double overtime, the NCAA Men's Soccer Committee "ruled" that the fifth-seeded zips would play yesterday's third round match against unseeded Northwestern at Northwestern's home field just north of Chicago, IL. This ruling was based on an NCAA rule that provides that "if it is determined in advance that a match cannot be played at the higher seed's home field, the site must be moved to the other participating school's home field."
There are major issues with this rule, and the way the determination was made. First, why couldn't they have played the game at the state-of-the-art St. V complex like they did on Wednesday, or even somewhere else? We happened to play a game of football at the St. V field on Friday morning and are here to tell you that the surface was in fantastic shape. Worse, the NCAA ruled the Akron field to be unplayable five days in advance. UA Coach Caleb Porter rightly took issue with this:
"Initially, I think we were all shocked, . . . We never anticipated that that would happen. I was surprised how quickly the decision was made. I was informed 30 minutes after the game Wednesday. . . . I have never heard of a team that was stripped a home game in this manner . . . Making the decision five days before the game is my biggest issue. We earned the home-field advantage and they never gave us a chance to prepare the field.
"They made their decision based on pure speculation and by looking at weather patterns. We have had three clear days in a row in Akron. [We have indeed.] The field would have been ready on Sunday. We were stripped of a home game."
Zips' athletic director Mack Rhoades also weighed in:
"I am very disappointed for our student-athletes who worked so hard to achieve the number five overall seed and our great fans who supported this team in grand fashion throughout the year . . . Equally disappointing is the process in which this decision was finalized.
"I support the NCAA and its commitment to the greater well-being of all participating student-athletes . . . I do not believe we were provided a fair opportunity to prepare and/or analyze the readiness of our field for Sunday's match. . . . We have a wonderful grounds crew who worked tirelessly to prepare the field for Tuesday's match. However, weather and time were not on their side. I liked our chances to have provided a safe playing surface for Sunday."
But it was not to be. So the Zips put on a brave face. Coach Porter told the Beacon Journal that the Zips were "focused on this game, and excited to be in Northwestern to play the game. Our team is on a mission and nothing like this will stop us from accomplishing our goal. . . . We are using this as motivation and extra fuel for the fire. We need to go out and take care of business. We can't let this affect our focus."
But alas, nor was this to be, as the Zips fell to Northwestern 1-0, despite dominating the Wildcats for most of the game. And how could this injustice not have affected the team's focus? A home game over this holiday weekend provided a tremendous advantage for the home team. With at least half the Zips' roster composed of local talent, they were sure to have had a hearty and loving home crowd to cheer them on yesterday. Instead, they had to take a seven-hour bus ride to Evanston, IL. Not only did the Zips lose the benefit of playing in their home town before their home crowd, they had to spend at least one full day of a fine holiday weekend ON A BUS. The emotional impact of this development should not be underestimated. And the physical effects of a seven-hour bus ride must be factored in as well.The home field advantage in this tournament is far too important to be handled in this way. The Zips should have been given a chance to prove their field was playable, or to provide an alternate home town venue. The Zips were royally screwed by the NCAA here, and we can only wonder if they'd have been treated differently if they were affiliated with an institution as prestigious as, say, Northwestern.
But all the Zips can do now is agitate for changes to these rules, and look ahead to next season, when much of the talent on their roster will return, including sophomore forward Steve Zakuani who led the nation in goals (20) and points (47) this season. Our heart really goes out to the Zips seniors, including goalkeeper Evan Bush (pictured above), who, along with the rest of this team, will always be Champions to us.
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7 comments:
Funny how despite being ranked in the top 10 for most of the year right alongside Akron, and ahead of them for several weeks, until falling victim to a ridculously strong in-conference schedule, you refer to Northwestern as "unseeded". As if they were some also-ran team that squeaked into the tournament undeservingly.
Granted this rule is certainly questionable but it has been enforced several times this year and in recent history and Akron is one of the only schools to have fallen losers as a result of it.
It is not as if they suddenly had to travel to the West Coast after all, and any homefield advantage is quickly and easily nullified by weather. With 20+ mph winds whipping off of Lake Michigan, this one came down to which team was more battle-tested and had more heart. Playing a Big Ten schedule served NWU well - Akron fell victim to having played in a weaker conference all year and having their top man shut down for the first time all year. Point blank.
Is the rule bunk? Perhaps. But bottom line is in tourney time it is put up or shut up, and for the Zips, you did not do the former, so it is time to do the latter.
Awfully easy to say "put up or shut up" when your team ekes out a narrow home win on a last minute venue change. Given that home field advantage in soccer is generally +0.5 for the home side and -0.5 for the road side for a net of 1 goal I'd say it made a big difference in this particular case.
I have no dog in this fight but thats a tough break for the Zips.
wv: caticiti - Citigroup bought out by the University of Kentucky?
The "other opponent's house" isn't the only rule that was stretched by the NCAA.
Akron got the other end of a favorable ruling from the NCAA in the previous match, when the NCAA decided to ignore the rule that says that only venues a team has used as a home field during the regular season can be considered as tournament venues.
There is also a rule that says that teams can refuse to play on a Turf field if they have a firm policy against it in scheduling their regular season non conference and conference games. once they play on a turf field, though, they forfeit that right to refuse to play on that type field.
Sometimes these rule conflict, and somebody will feel slighted no matter which way the ruling goes.
That isn't to say politics DIDN'T play a role....
If you want to study some past history of inequitable activity by the NCAA, look at the treatment of the University of Portland Pilots women's squad over any number of recent years. One example: a top four seeding along with tickets to Lincoln, NE, leaving the NCAA top attendance site (and ticket revenue producing site) in all of women's soccer. Good luck to the Zips in the future.
I sympathize with the Zips, and I hardly think this incident shows the NCAA at its best, but a few things need to be kept in mind. First, it is curious that Coach Porter claims never to have heard of this happening before, as rightly or wrongly, it happens with some regularity in the NCAA men's and women's soccer tournaments. Further, it wasn't a question of whether the Akron field could be made ready between Wednesday and Sunday. Rather, it was the risk that another snowstorm close to Sunday would put them back to square one. Finally, a decision on the site of Sunday's game had to be made ASAP after Wednesday's game, because whoever hosts a game needs lead time to print tickets, publicize the game, and tend to a lot of other logistical details.
Anon 12:25: We don't mean to take a shot at the Wildcats by referring to them as unseeded. The point is that Akron earned the higher-seed, and had been counting on home field advantage going into the holiday week. The home field advantage, particularly given the holiday and means of travel, was huge here. To have it yanked away in this way has an impact as well. A lot easier for Northwestern to "have heart" when it gets a boost like this.
Larry, Cowpasture: You make good points. But the "turf" rule seems arcane. We could hardly tell the difference between grass and the state of the art turf surface that we played on at St. V on Friday.
One thing we didn't mention was that this certainly puts some pressure on the University to build a state of the art soccer facility (will they be able to use Summa Field for soccer?). One would think that this episode would help make a convincing case.
to the brave anonymous with all the heart of Northwestern... all of your points are idiotic. akron played 6 Big Ten games 4 being on the road. Comparing the schedules Akron had the tougher schedule. the reference to traveling to the west coast is also idiotic. would you rather get on an airplane for 4 hours to travel somewhere decent to play, or a bus on a highway for 8 hours there and back, in the snow, to play ice hockey in 25mph blowing sleet in the middle of lake michigan? this is after you were stripped of home field advantage. also, your team WAS unseeded, werent they? as for home field advantage you obviously havent played in any major sport what-so-ever. nor have you been to a home Akron soccer game. your crowd attendance was 568 with half being from Akron. Akron had approx 2000 for the OSU game. idiot! bottom line, akron got screwed.
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