ASA Code Proposal

This is one code change submitted by the Slammers and sponsored by Tony Laws to be considered at the annual meeting. Thanks for the support of this board for helping it get this far.



Item #: 46

Article: 505 A 08

Addition: Any team that intentionally forfeits a game in ASA tournament play will be disqualified from further play in that tournament.

Submitted by Tony Laws, Commissioner.

 

Sounds impossible to prove.

 

Not at all. We're talking about when a team says "we're not playing this game. We forfeit to the other team."

Now, what will undoubtedly happen if this passes, is that in the identical situation one team will put forth "a whole lot less effort" to win a game and allow the other to win. That can't be proved.

 

"Intentionally"

It seems to me that you would have to then define what is "intentional" and what is "unintentional". Suppose one team fails to have enough players show up at game time. Is that "intentional"? What if you find out later that circumstances prevented a car load of players from arriving on time for that game, but they were there for the next game? What if... etc., etc., etc?

Is it better to intentionally lose a game than to forfeit? I guess I don't see how this is going to help.

 

ASA

There is no way Code will ever completely keep cheating or unethical behavior out of the game but in this case there is a key word in that simple code addition.

The word "will" instead of "may" changes everything. In our case this summer the whole park knew what was going on and the coach's themselves were not hiding anything. The current code uses the word may as far as disgualifying a team so this summer when the Tournament director didn't send the team home he was protected by the code even though he claimed to have no power. It was unappealable.

If this is adopted then I think it makes inaction by a TD or offical a correctible offense, and action could be taken after a tournament.

Proving intent may be hard in some cases, but for a team to forfeit on purpose it would take acceptance of an entire team to do that. Most coaches would never cross that line.

On the surface it may not seem that effective but putting the word "will" instead of "may" will have the desired effect, and this past summer the situation that occured at the SC ASA tournament would never had even been attempted.

 

My comment is related to the future. You create rules, people alter behavior to circumvent them. You make intentional forfeiting punishable and people find ways to make it unpunishable. There are plenty of excuses for forfeiting a game.

If it such a big deal, then the rule must be "You forfeit a game, you forfeit the tournament." Delete the word INTENTIONAL.

 

Very simple. The TD no longer accepts the offending teams entrance fee for future tournaments.

 

A TD not accepting money Now THAT I would like to see