The NCAA Women's Lacrosse Rules Committee surprised many in the sport Thursday by recommending a 90-second possession clock during its meeting in Indianapolis this week.
"It's the shot heard round the world," Navy coach Cindy Timchal said.
For the sport, it certainly has that implication.
Many teams hold the ball for long periods, especially late in the game, when stalling can help protect a lead. National champion Maryland did it twice in the latter part of its Championship Weekend games two weeks ago — first in a 10-8 semifinal win over Syracuse, then in a 9-8 win over North Carolina in the title game.
If a team has a lead and wins the ensuing draw, it can be extremely difficult for opponents to force a turnover. Safety rules make checking difficult in the women's game.
Holding the ball, especially during the last 10 minutes of a game, has become increasingly popular at the college and high school levels. No such change has yet been recommended for high school games.
While many in college lacrosse have clamored for a rules change that would stop the stall and speed up the game, traditionalists have balked at such a change.
"Change is always scary," said Timchal, who has coached in Division I for 33 years. "Our sport is one of the fastest growing, and we wanted it to be 'the fastest game on two feet.' We want fast starts. We want to keep play going. I know, for some, it's scary, but change is something we feel will make our sport one that players enjoy. And you want a fan base, too, people who really love watching our young women play lacrosse, so I think it's real forward thinking."
The possession clock would give offenses 90 seconds to take a shot that scores, is saved or hits the post. The clock would reset after a shot on goal, even if the attack maintains possession after a deflected save or carom off the post. If a shot misses the goal, the clock would continue.
The clock also would reset on any change of possession and after a defender is issued a yellow or red card.
The recommendation, which must be approved by the NCAA Playing Rules Oversight Panel before implementation, was proposed to "limit the abuse of clock management and increase the pace of play," according to NCAA.com.
"We have heard more and more comments and concerns about long possession times from all three divisions," said Virginia coach Julie Myers, the committee chair and one of the game's traditionalists. "Over the last few years, there has been a significant increase in the concern about the excessively long possessions that were taking place all over the field and throughout the course of our game.
"We, as a committee, felt that limiting the amount of overall possession time will encourage more urgency in transitioning into the offensive end, where the main objective should become scoring more efficiently rather than to hold possession of the ball. We felt this would bring better balance to both sides of the ball and would keep the ball in play more consistently," Myers added in a statement on NCAA.com.
Mount St. Mary's coach Lauren Schwarzmann went to the final four over Memorial Day weekend and heard varying opinions about the stall.
"As a lacrosse fan, I enjoyed the competition between all the teams, especially in that championship game," said Schwarzmann, who played lacrosse at Century and Johns Hopkins. "You saw such a high-caliber lacrosse game of two aggressive teams, very skilled athletes playing on the field. But if you talk to people who aren't necessarily involved in the sport or who aren't as familiar — those who watch the game, maybe on TV — they say, 'That was kind of boring,' and, 'What's the deal with the long possessions?' and, 'There's not enough action in the game.' "
"As a coach, you say that was just a really well-coached game in terms of Maryland holding possession at the end or, at some points, North Carolina holding it or Maryland holding it and looking for the best-shot opportunity. To me, it's just good coaching, but on the flip side of it, we want more people watching our sport, and they want to see more action, and this will change the way we run our offenses and our defenses trying to get quicker goals."
By speeding up the game, coaches face the challenge of teaching a faster offense while continuing to stress safety. Women's players can't usually shoot as quickly or from as far away from the goal as men do, because of the shooting-space foul. Simply stated, if another player is between the player who intends to shoot and the goal, she can't shoot.
"This is one of those huge changes for us that completely changes the landscape of the game and how we're coaching the players," Schwarzmann said. "It's on the coaches to dictate and instill in the players what is a quality shot and what is reckless, because our game is already full of rules that are so subjective at times that this is just adding another element, but we as coaches will have to work through the rules to make sure we're not putting our players in positions where it's an unsafe playing environment."
Rules changes can be proposed only every other year, and if the NCAA Playing Rules Oversight Panel adopts the recommendation after its scheduled discussion in mid-July, it would take effect in 2017 for Division I and 2018 for Division II and Division III. The delay would give programs time to add a visible shot clock, preferably one at each end of the field.
Maryland coach Cathy Reese was unavailable for comment. Loyola Maryland coach Jen Adams is a member of the rules committee and referred inquiries to Myers.
The committee suggested several other changes, including replacing the six-minute overtime period with sudden victory.
Timchal had reservations about that proposal, because both teams wouldn't necessarily get a possession in overtime. Playing out the six minutes, with a change of sides and another draw after three minutes, gave each team at least two chances to win possession in overtime before moving to sudden victory.
Schwarzmann also said she likes the current overtime format and that changing to sudden death puts added emphasis on the winning the draw, because the team that doesn't get the first draw in overtime might not get another possession.
Other changes include instituting a yellow card for an illegal stick, making it a two-minute nonreleasable foul; using alternating possessions rather than a throw after offsetting penalties; using self-restarts outside the critical scoring area; and changing three-second violations to minor fouls, giving the attacking team the ball on the 12-meter arc for an indirect play rather than awarding an 8-meter shot for a major foul.
"While I don't think all of the rules will pass," Schwarzmann said, "I think it's a positive progression for the way we want our sport to be played in terms of we want it to be fast paced, we don't want people questioning the rules when they're watching it, we want to attract athletic play. While we might not agree with everything, I think change and the possibility for change is exciting."