Top Stories

College Notebook: Countdown clock to stay for now; ACC is the conference to beat; and more

NCAAMensSoccerLogo1-NCAA

Fans may find some college soccer rules and regulations a bit odd, but so do some of the players.

For example, North Carolina midfielder and Jamaican international Omar Holness told SBI that while he is now accustomed to the countdown clock, it was difficult transitioning to it during his first year with the Tar Heels.

“During that freshman year, it was kind of frustrating to adapt to (the different rules and regulations), especially the countdown clock,” Holness told SBI. “The first time I heard that, I was like, ‘wait, what?'”

Added time is not currently a part of the NCAA rules and regulations, as the clock is maintained by an official timekeeper at each game, and time is stopped on a scoreboard for all in attendance to see. According to a source from the NCAA, no discussions are currently taking place within the rules committee to change the countdown clock to the FIFA standard.

Here are some more notes from across the nation:

THE ACC IS THE CONFERENCE TO BEAT YET AGAIN

The NCAA Men’s Soccer RPI was updated Monday, and teams from the ACC lead the charge, as the top four teams hail from the conference.

The RPI, which is used to determine at-large seeds for the end-of-the-season tournament, has Wake Forest at No. 1, while North Carolina, Notre Dame and Clemson follow suit, respectively. Each of the four ACC teams, as well as Virginia, feature in the latest SBI Top 25 ranking as well. A team from the conference has also won the previous two College Cups.

“It’s been a pretty successful start (to the 2015 season), we’re halfway done with regular season competition, but we definitely have a tough road ahead of us,” Demon Deacons head coach bobby Muuss told SBI. “Our meat and potatoes of the schedule is coming up, the heart of the ACC schedule, but hopefully we can keep making progress and continue to get better each and every game.”

Wake Forest has a tough ACC road encounter with Boston College Friday.

CREIGHTON AND FABIAN HERBERS CAN’T BE STOPPED

The Creighton Bluejays won their ninth out of nine games Tuesday, and a familiar face contributed yet again to keep the team’s perfect record intact.

The Bluejays, SBI No. 1 for the second-and-about-to-be-third consecutive week, pummeled Missouri State, 4-0, Tuesday night.

The man currently in the spotlight is Fabian Herbers, a junior born in Ahaus, Germany. The six-foot forward scored yet another goal Tuesday, bringing his total to eight — tied for second most across the nation. He also has six assists on the year, tied for second in Division I as well.

Herbers, who is one of SBI’s 40 MLS Draft Prospects, has seen his stock exponentially rise. He is also a Generation Adidas candidate.

TAR HEELS HEAD COACH DOWNPLAYS IMPORTANCE OF RIVALRY WIN

North Carolina may have just defeated its archival, the Duke Blue Devils, Saturday, but according to the Tar Heels’ head coach, the win was no more significant than any other thus far.

Coach Carlos Somoano understands that a win against Duke is important because of the history between the two schools, but he said the win is only important because it was the team’s most recent one.

“I think (midfielder) Alex Olofson was asked this after the (Duke) game as well, and yeah, it’s great that we beat Duke, and it is a rival game, but in the end, it’s not a disrespect to Duke or for any opponent. Our next game against Pittsburgh is our most important game,” Somoano told SBI.

North Carolina travels to play Pittsburgh on Friday.

Comments

  1. I think the countdown clock would probably eliminate injury faking as the ref could just stop the clock when attending to a downed player. This would probably help the game. However the risk is that once the clock is stopped their will be an inexorable push to put in commercials during the “time out”

    Reply
  2. Why don’t they adopt the actual rules of soccer? Fewer of our top players are playing college soccer and that’s a good thing.

    Reply
  3. High School soccer is the same as College on the time clock. I don’t know much about College rules, but High School soccer has its on proprietary rules. I tried to find a copy of the high school rules online once and the only way to get them was to pay for a rule book. Don’t know if that is still the case. It would sure make a lot of sense to just adopt Fifa rules for College and High School, and then make whatever modifications make sense.

    Reply

Leave a Comment