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Rules & Format July 17, 2026 1:05 AM

Rule concerning use of emergency subs in postseason

Posted by Michael Strait ✏️ Edit this post

In the spring postseason, there were teams that brought in "emergency subs" for their postseason matches that had not played for those teams during the regular season and it was pretty clear that it made a difference in the postseason match results. Because of that I invoked a new rule for the summer season that to be eligible to play in the postseason a player must have played in at least two regular season matches for that team. As we enter the postseason now, more than one team is finding that they need to bring in subs now that would violate that rule. In light of everything else going on, I am going to "suspend" that rule for this postseason, and am willing to reconsider this rule for the fall. The obvious issue we are trying to deal with here is intentional "sandbagging" in the postseason. Life happens even in the best planned situations, so not allowing any subs in the postseason is not a realistic option. It's been suggested to me however that the rule could stipulate criteria based on dupr ratings rather than requiring that the postseason emergency sub have played two regular season games with the same team. What do you think?