Visitors Jerseys

[copedaddy]

Out for pregame, officials notice that the visiting team is wearing dark grey jerseys and pants. They inform the crew that their away jerseys have been deemed illegal. There was no communication with the home team about this issue. Home wearing dark blue on blue were asked to change to white jerseys. They said no.
Seems there used to be something in the rules about the home team having to do this, but I can't find it. What are the crews options here? One team is UIL the other is TAAPS.
There is a rule change from 2009 that states the penalty of 15 yd UNS  after the opening and third quarter kickoff.
Does the home team have to change?

[JasonTX]

It appears to have been taken out of the rules.  I remember it used to state the home team would have to change.  Now you are correct in the 15 yard penalty following the kickoff of each half.

Aha, UIL exceptions.  Should have known that anything in Rule 1 is likely to have a UIL exception.

[Chiefump]

It is an UIL exception.
EXCEPTION: 1-4-5-b-2. Add: “EXCEPTION: Light colored jerseys, instead of white, are acceptable if jersey colors of the teams are obviously contrasting colors with clearly visible numbers. Home teams are required to make any changes necessary.”
DELETE: Paragraph 3
DELETE: Paragraph 4
DELETE: PENALTY

[ElvisLives]

Muddy situation, because the UIL has ‘exceptions’ to 1-4-5-b-2, one of which requires the home team to make any changes necessary.  Although TAPPS appears to use most of the UIL’s exceptions, that specific exception does not appear in the TAPPS exceptions document, which appears to mean they use the standard NCAA rule, which does not reference which team is required to make any changes.  (Many years ago, NCAA rules required the visiting team to make changes.)

Regarding the penalty, the UIL exceptions dropped the penalty.  Again, the TAPPS document does not list an exception to the NCAA rule, so, apparently, the penalty still exists for them.

Typically, home rules apply.  So, you’d go by whichever team is home.  If this is a UIL home game, about all you can do, by rule, is let ‘em play and file an incident report (perhaps to both UIL. And TAPPS).  If this is a TAPPS game, it would seem that you would enforce the 15 yard penalty against the visiting team after the first play of each half.  And file an incident report(s). 

When you say the home team was wearing “dark blue on blue,” I take that to mean dark blue jerseys with dark blue pants.  I hope you don’t mean dark blue numbers on dark blue jerseys.  If so, you’d charge the home team a T/O at the start of each period (UIL, for certain, and TAPPS appears to agree, since neither have an exception to the NCAA penalty for this). And, file an incident report(s).

But, this whole jersey thing is way out of control, and is nothing we, as game day officials, should have to deal with, other than to file an incident report.  These are issues for governing organizations (NCAA, UIL, TAPPS, etc.) to govern, particularly since these issues are created by uniform vendors that are trying to exploit these teams with what they sell as unique and ‘cool’, paying no mind to the governing rules.
If school A doesn’t have uniforms that comply with the rules, then let school B complain to their governing organization.  As long as we can distinguish the teams and their numbers on the field, we should not be put in a position of being fashion police.

Robert

[getnbetter]

This 

But, this whole jersey thing is way out of control, and is nothing we, as game day officials, should have to deal with, other than to file an incident report.  These are issues for governing organizations (NCAA, UIL, TAPPS, etc.) to govern, particularly since these issues are created by uniform vendors that are trying to exploit these teams with what they sell as unique and ‘cool’, paying no mind to the governing rules.
If school A doesn’t have uniforms that comply with the rules, then let school B complain to their governing organization.  As long as we can distinguish the teams and their numbers on the field, we should not be put in a position of being fashion police.

Robert
[/quote]