Note--Except in the case of emergencies or approval by the conference office, changes to sport regulations by sport committees must be proposed no later than 30 days prior to in-person conference meetings, and approved by the Advisory Board meeting held prior to the start of each subsequent season--May meetings for Fall sports, October meetings for Winter sports, January meetings for Spring sports. (Updated May 2022)
SECTION 1.0 PLAYING SEASON AND SCHEDULING
1.1 All member institutions shall observe the NCAA starting date for pre-season practice.
1.2 The maximum number of games permitted in a single season shall not exceed the NCAA maximum number of allowable games.
1.3 Varsity contests shall be scheduled in accordance with the regulations as they appear in Article 17 of the Bylaws of the NCAA.
1.4 Conference members shall complete their conference-scheduled contests (except for contests which are postponed and are unable to be rescheduled under the Make-up policy), as assigned yearly by the conference office.
1.4.1. Agreements for conference contests shall be initiated by the athletic representative of the host institution to the visiting institution for approval no later than 30-days prior to the official start of the NCAA season. (Agreements may be contracts or other forms of written confirmation.) (Updated June 2013)
1.5 Each member school will play all other member schools in a conference schedule approved by the athletic directors. Starting times will be determined by the host institution and shall be communicated in writing to the opposing teams no later than 30 days prior to the season.
1.5.1 Weekend getaway times may be agreed upon between institutions with approval from the Commissioner. Weekend getaway dates are defined as the final game of a road series outside the pod (or geographical region, i.e. Hawai'i, NorCal/San Francisco Bay area, Southern California). Requesting weekend getaway times is the responsibility of the visiting school and must be made by July 1 for fall sports, September 1 for winter sports, and December 1 for spring sports. Weekend getaway dates must be accommodated by the home school, as long as the visiting team is making a flight (or departing) that same day/night. A request may be denied by the Home school if they have multiple home events scheduled on that same date. (Updated May 2013, revised May 2014, May 2022)
Times for such weekend getaway dates shall be mutually agreed upon between schools in writing with written approval by the Commissioner. Weekend getaway dates are Saturday or Sunday, and federal holidays that fall on Mondays (Updated June 2011). The final home game of the season (traditionally known as Senior Night) is exempt from the Weekend Getaway Date Rule. (Updated February 2011)
1.5.2 In-pod teams that are scheduled to play four contests at one site against an in-pod rival may agree to split the series and play the series with two home contests and two away contests. (Added May 2024)
1.6 Make-up policy
a) The intent of the PacWest softball make-up policy is that all games affecting the PacWest championship and the awarding of the automatic berth or an at-large berth for the NCAA Championships shall be played, if possible.
b) If a game is postponed by weather or other appropriate reasons, best effort shall be made by the two opposing teams to make-up the contests, including consulting with Athletic Directors of the affected schools, as well as the conference office, to determine if make-up is possible.
SECTION 2.0 GAME MANAGEMENT/CONDITIONS OF COMPETITION
2.1 The host team will provide adequate equipment and supplies at the game site, including the following:
2.1.1. Game Balls
2.1.2. Drinking water and cups
2.1.3. Restroom facilities
2.1.4. The host institution must provide a reserved parking space or a parking pass for an easily accessible and safe area to all assigned officials and the visiting team’s travel party. (Updated January 2025)
2.1.5 Must have an infield tarp for use as necessary, or for those institutions who are not in control of their own facilities, a back up facility plan in place at least 72 hours prior to the first game of the scheduled series. (Updated May 2022)
2.1.6 Must have a clay pitching circle with clay on hand for necessary repairs. (Updated May 2022)
2.2 The host team shall provide an athletic trainer at least one and one-half hours prior to game time either at the game site or in the athletic training room. An athletic trainer must be in attendance during, between and for a reasonable time period following the game(s).
2.3 The host team shall provide a well-trained and knowledgeable official scorer for each contest. The official scorer shall be the final authority for all scoring decisions made during the course of the game. Under no circumstances shall the official scorer be permitted to keep score in either the host or visiting team's dugout.
2.4 Host institution shall provide:
- Administrator in Charge - The Host School Administrator in Charge should be available at all times throughout the event and should not be a coach involved in the game. The administrator in charge shall be on site throughout the competition and must introduce themselves to the opposing coach and/or opposing administrator prior to the contest. (Updated May 2022)
- Is responsible for ensuring adequate security, and for enforcing all crowd control standards per NCAA Championship Handbook General Regulations.
- Report all instances of misconduct and unsportsmanlike behavior in any PacWest contests to the Commissioner, Softball Administrative Liaison and the visiting team Director of Athletics or designated athletic dept. administrator. All ejections resulting from unsportsmanlike conduct are to be reported to the Pac West Commissioner in writing by host personnel immediately following the contest.
2.5 The host team shall ensure the playing field is available for warm-ups two hours prior to game time. The host team shall allow the visiting team a maximum of eight minutes pre-game warm-up on the playing field. The visiting team will be notified of their pre-game warm-up time and ground rules/facility rules upon arrival.
2.6 Pre-game information, including parking, appropriate entry into the facility, practice times, etc. shall be communicated in writing to the coach and any appropriate administrators of the visiting team prior to the game.
2.7 The host and visiting coaches shall pre-arrange uniform (colors).
2.8 In conference games, the pre-game procedure shall follow the NCAA Softball Rules.
2.9 The eight-run rule after five innings (or 4 1/2 if the home team is ahead) shall apply to all conference games. The NCAA halted game rule shall be used in all conference games.
2.10 The International Tie-Breaker rule shall be used beginning with the top of the 10th inning in all conference games.
2.11 The host team shall be the "designated home team” for all games of a series. When teams play additional games at one site because of rainouts, the visiting team will be designated as the home team for any games originally scheduled for its home field.
2.12 The time between games of a doubleheader shall be a minimum of 20 minutes and a maximum of 30.
2.13 In person scouting of opponents is permitted.
2.14 PUBLIC ADDRESS POLICIES
2.14.1 An explanation of the team introductions procedure (i.e. full teams or starters only) to be used before a contest must be outlined in the pre-game timing sheet provided by the home team sports information contact. Sports information contacts are responsible for ensuring clear understanding of the introduction procedure to the visiting team head coach.
2.14.2 The exact same information (e.g. roster information, etc.) must be provided for both the home and visiting teams at all times.
2.14.3 The following public address announcement shall be made a minimum of twice per game. It is suggested that the statement be read prior to the beginning of the contest and at the intermission.
“The Pacific West Conference promotes good sportsmanship by student-athletes, coaches and spectators, and requests your cooperation by supporting the participants and officials in a positive manner. Profanity, racial or sexist comments, or other intimidating actions directed at officials, student-athletes, coaches or team representatives will not be tolerated and are grounds for removal from the site of competition. ”
2.15 TIMING COUNTDOWN SHEETS
The host team sports information contact must distribute a timing countdown sheet for each doubleheader to the Administrator on Duty, each head coach, the head umpire, official scorer, public address announcer, and scoreboard operator. The countdown to be used is listed below. Teams are to begin warming up as soon as possible after the conclusion of the first game. Game rosters and starting lineups are to be submitted to the official scorekeeper no later than 15 minutes prior to game time.
Count Down To Game Time: Game 1
90:00* - Teams may begin warm-up
15:00 - Coaches Meeting/Game Rosters exchanged and submitted to Head Umpire and Scorekeeper
5:00 - Teams clear the field
Team introductions
- Officials
- Visiting Coaches and Team
- Home Coaches and Team
National Anthem
0:00 - Game begins
Game 2
20:00 - Intermission in between games/ Field must be available for warm-ups
SECTION 3.0 CHAMPIONSHIPS (Updated May 2022)
3.1. All member institutions fielding teams in softball shall agree to participate for the championship.
3.2 The Conference Softball Regular Season Champion shall be the team with the best winning percentage from the approved confernce schedule. Teams in contention for the conference regular season championship must complete at least 75 percent of their contests to qualify for the regular season title and the conference championship tournament. (All competing teams in the conference schedule, including teams in the NCAA DII Membership Process, are eligible for contention to the conference regular season title.) (Updated October 2022)
3.3 In the case of a tie for first place in the conference regular season standings, all teams tied for first place shall be declared Co-Champions.
3.4 Conference softball tiebreaker guidelines determine which teams qualify for the conference softball tournament championships. Tiebreaker criteria for qualification to the conference softball tournament championships and tournament seeding (or other times when tiebreaker is necessary) is as follows:
- Head-to-head results in conference games *
- Record versus conference teams in descending order **
- Overall winning percentage against all DII competition.
- Coin-flip supervised by Commissioner
* Head-to-head results based on winning percentage. In the event of a multiple-team tie, each team’s record against the other teams involved in the tie will be compiled and winning percentage determined. The team with the highest winning percentage will be chosen. Teams involved do not have to have played each other the same number of times.
** The final conference record of each opponent will be combined to produce an opponent's winning percentage. Opponents a team played twice will be included twice in the calculation.
*** Records for each tied team against opponents all teams have played an equal number of times will be combined to produce a common opponent winning percentage.
3.5 Only NCAA Active schools may qualify for the conference softball tournament championships. A school currently in the NCAA DII Membership process may not qualify for the conference softball tournament championships; a non-qualifying school's spot is taken by the next Active member in the conference standings. (Updated October 2022)
3.6 The winner of the conference softball tournament shall be declared the PacWest Tournament Champion and shall earn the conference's Automatic Qualifier to the NCAA Championships. (If an AQ Replacement Team is necessary, then the Replacement Team shall be the runner-up in the conference tournament, but if the regular season champion does not win the conference tournament, then the conference regular season champion shall be designated as the AQ Replacement Team). (Updated October 2022)
SECTION 4.0 EQUIPMENT
4.1 The official ball used for all conference games shall be the official ball of NCAA Championships. (Updated May 2022)
SECTION 5.0 OFFICIALS
5.1 Three umpires shall be assigned to all Conference games. An exception may be granted by the Commissioner (or his/her designee) under emergency or extraordinary circumstances to allow for two umpires to be utilized. (Updated October 2022)
5.2 All umpires shall be ASA or CSA certified utilizing NCAA Softball Rules.
5.3 In the event of inclement weather, it is the responsibility of the school to contact the assigner. If the game is re-scheduled or moved to a different site, the game should first be offered to the assigned officials. If the officials are told to come to the site and the game is not started, the officials are entitled to ½ single game fee. If the game is started and then halted, they are entitled to a full single game fee.
5.4 Umpires shall not utilize video replay to make in-game rulings. (Updated May 2016)
5.5 Finalized schedules including non-conference matches shall be submitted to the Officials Assignor(s) and Conference Office not later than October 1 prior to the season. (January 2025)
5.6 Conference member institutions are responsible for the payment of all officials assigned to their home regular season contests unless an alternative agreement regarding officials’ payment has been made with the Conference Office or the opposing institution in advance of the contest. Official fees are designated by the Conference Office and payment to the official must be issued within 30 days of the date of the contest they officiated via the designated platform. The payment platform designated by the Conference Office (e.g., RefQuest) should be used by the institution to issue payment to officials. Prior to the start of each sports season, a member of each institution’s staff should be designated as the point person on the payment platform (e.g., RefQuest Pay) and this person will be responsible for ensuring that officials’ payments are issued in accordance with this regulation. (January 2025)
SECTION 6.0 AMPLIFIERS, NOISEMAKERS AND OTHER SOUND GENERATING DEVICES
6.1 Artificial noisemakers, air horns or electronic amplifiers shall not be permitted, and such instruments shall be removed from the playing and spectator areas. The home institution Administrator on Duty of game management is responsible for enforcing these provisions.
6.2 Auxiliary public address systems utilized by home or visiting institution spirit groups must:
- be approved by the home event management and coordinated with the primary public address system so as not to interrupt, alter or in any other way impede the function of the primary public address system.
- must not be used with the intent of preventing a team a reasonable and fair environment in which to compete.
- Any violation of this provision shall immediately result in the discontinued use of the system.
- Obscenities, vulgar language, racist or sexist remarks, other any other verbal abuse toward any participants or spectators at any time will not be tolerated.
SECTION 7.0 SPORTS INFORMATION REQUIREMENTS
7.1 All Conference schools are required to use StatCrew software.
7.2 The StatCrew game file shall be e-mailed to the Visiting team sports information director and to the PacWest Conference office as soon as possible at the conclusion of the game. If requested, a box score and play-by-play should also be faxed to the Visiting team SID and/or head coach.
7.3 Per NCAA guidelines, statistics from games played against junior colleges, club teams and teams from foreign countries may not be counted when reporting statistics to the NCAA and the PacWest.
SECTION 8.0 SPORTS MEDICINE REQUIREMENTS
SECTION 9.0 AWARDS
SECTION 10.0 TOBACCO USAGE
10.1 Tobacco usage by athletes, coaches, officials and event staff is strictly prohibited at all PacWest athletic events, including practice sessions.
10.2 Violators are subject to contest suspension for each offense. Following a team's first offense, head coaches in addition to the violator are subject to suspension for each additional offense.
SECTION 11.0 COACHES MEETINGS
There shall be two meetings of the coaches annually, one prior to the season and one after the season. The site, date, and time of these mandatory meetings must be communicated to all coaches and administrators at least two weeks prior to the meeting.
SECTION 12.0 ITEMS NOT COVERED
Items not covered in conference regulations shall adhere to NCAA rules and regulations. The Conference office shall have the authority to levy fines or other penalties deemed appropriate for violations of sport regulation. Such penalties shall be appealable to the Committee on Appeals.
SECTION 13.0 FOLLOW UP
Violations to the PacWest Game Management Protocol are to be reported by the Director of Athletics or other designated athletic dept. administrator to the opposing athletic administrators and the PacWest Commissioner within five (5) business days. Additionally, all ejections resulting from unsportsmanlike conduct are to be reported to the PacWest Commissioner in writing by host personnel immediately following competition.