College Squash Association Rule Updates (October 2016)

Hatfield, MA — During the offseason, the College Squash Association’s rules were reviewed by the men’s and women’s Executive Committees. A number of changes were enacted that should strengthen the College Squash Association. Below is a summary of these changes (listed alphabetically by rule). The complete rules can be found through the links in each section.

These rules are effective for the 2016 – 2017 season. Coaches and Team Contacts need to be familiar with these rule updates.

All-Americans:

• For the WCSA, clarified that the winners of the four B draws at Individual Championship are Second Team All-Americans. If warranted, the WCSA may name more than 20 All-Americans.

Awards (Men):

• Clarified that the Barnaby and Sloane awards are for varsity teams.

Awards (Women):

• Clarified that the Wetzel Award is for varsity players.

National Championship Eligibility:

• After a one-year trial of combining the Men’s and Women’s College Squash Associations’ Team Championships, the men’s and women’s events will return to the separate and alternating weekend format previously used. The rule was updated to reflect the return of the single gender Team Championship format.
• Requirements for club and emerging club teams were simplified and no longer require that four matches be played between January 1st and Team Championships. The CSA encourages all clubs and emerging clubs to play as many matches as possible during the second semester to be ready for Team Championships.
• The Emerging Team Division was for brand-new teams that had less than six players. Due to the number of full nine player teams and the fact that the Emerging Team Division has not had entries the past few years, the Emerging Team Division at Team Championships has been retired.

Penalties/Fines:

• Over the past several seasons, a number of teams have cancelled matches with less than 24 hours notice for non-weather related reasons. To further strengthen the CSA, the following penalty was added: “If a team cancels a match less than two weeks prior to the scheduled match date, their eligibility for the National Team Championship will be reviewed by the Executive Committee. Unless extraordinary circumstances make the cancelation absolutely necessary, the team will be deemed ineligible for the National Team Championship.”

Ranking Rules: 

• The season will continue to have three ranking phases: preseason (varsity coaches vote in poll), manual rankings of varsity teams (November – January 24th, handled by the Ranking Chair and the Executive Administrator), and computerized rankings (January 25th – Team Championships). The computerized ranking phases will now include club teams that have played at least five matches.
• The individual ranking section was modified to reflect the current individual ranking process, which is generally based on Elo rankings. The paragraph about recording challenge matches to assist with individual rankings was removed. The Elo formula uses hypothetical challenge matches as part of its formula (a team’s #1 is assumed to have beaten a team’s #2, a team’s #2 is assumed to have beaten a team’s #3, etc.).

To see exact changes, please refer to the “Last Update on″ link at the bottom of the each modified rule change.