In late September, the College Squash Association updated a number of rules. This article is the fourth in a series highlighting the 2015-16 rule changes.
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Hatfield, MA — The College Squash Association recently published changes to its eligibility and penalty rules. In addition, the CSA formalized its media policy.
The eligibility rules were further clarified to distinguish between a varsity team and a club team. Varsity teams have access to a school’s and/or league’s NCAA compliance staffs. Therefore, varsity teams may deal with eligibility questions regarding school, league, and NCAA standards.
Club and emerging club programs do not generally have access to compliance staff. The College Squash Association expects club and emerging club programs to adhere to NCAA eligibility rules; however, to ease the process, the following requirements for club and emerging club teams must be adhered to:
- Players must be enrolled at the associate member institution
- Players only have four years of eligibility
- Injury waivers will not be granted
- Club and emerging programs may not have graduate students participate in official competition.
Over the past few seasons, a number of women have competed for both the men’s and women’s teams of their respective college or university. As the collegiate games grows, the Executive Committees decided it was time to put more structure and clarity around this process.
If a school has men’s and women’s varsity programs, players must compete on the team of their gender. If a school has a varsity men’s program and no varsity women’s program, women can compete on the men’s team.
For schools that have both men’s and women’s club and emerging club programs, a woman may play on a men’s team provided the following conditions must be met:
- At the beginning of the season, the player chooses which gender team she will represent;
- Once she has played an official match (top 9 ladder position) for one gender, she must continue to play on that gender’s team through the beginning of the next season.
For colleges and universities that have a men’s varsity team and women’s club or emerging club team, the above club and emerging club protocol applies.
A minor change to the penalty rules was also implemented. In preparation for Team Championships, line-ups are submitted for review and appeal by other teams. If a school does not submit their line-up by the deadline, the last line-up used in an official College Squash Association dual match is used. Over the past few years, several teams per season have not submitted line-ups and then appealed their last used line-up. This situation caused a lot of unneeded work for the Executive Administrator, Tournament Director, and the Executive Committees. To discourage the non-submission and appeal of a school’s own line-up, a $100 penalty will be assessed if this situation occurs.
The College Squash Association formalized in writing its media policy. Teams and fans are permitted to photograph or video of matches for personal and educational use, but are not permitted to use the recordings for commercial purposes.
For regular season matches, media credentials are to be requested from the host institution. For Team Championships and Individual Championships, media credentials are to be requested from the College Squash Association and/or US Squash.
By participating in a College Squash Association sanctioned regular or post season match, players consent to the photographing, video recording, and publication of their matches by the College Squash Association, the college or university, and/or any College Squash Association media partner.
For complete details on the eligibility, penalties, and media policy, please refer to the College Squash Association’s rules:
