Each winter, the College Football Rules Committee recommends changes to the game that are then voted on in the spring by the NCAA Playing Rules Oversight Panel.
This year, the biggest change proposed is to allow players ejected due to targeting to remain on the sideline rather than being banished to the locker room.
This was one of the changes Ohio State head coach Ryan Day was hoping to see when he met with the media earlier in the winter.
“I was at the AFCA head coaches meeting yesterday,” Day said back in January. “There was some talk about that and trying to make some adjustments. I’ll let Todd Berry and those guys talk about some of the things. But I do think that some of those things should be looked at.
“It’s certainly a difficult thing at times to officiate, as we all know. It’s in there for the right reasons. But there is some gray area there that’s sometimes hard. I totally get that.
“But I definitely think the walk of shame, where the guy, he gets done, he walks off the field. I don’t think that that’s right. And so, again, I’ll let Todd go out there and talk about some of the things we voted on yesterday. But I do think there’s some different things we can look at.”
No other changes to the targeting rule have been proposed.
“In reviewing the trends in targeting, the committee is encouraged and pleased with how the rules have clearly had a positive impact on our game,” said David Shaw, chair of the committee and head coach at Stanford University. “We are encouraged by the improvements in the way our officials, our coaches and our players have worked to keep our game exciting and make it safer. We will continue to look for ways to improve our approach to targeting, but we strongly believe we are on the right path.”
The committee also recommended that duplicate numbers be held in check by only allowing two players on the same team to wear the same number. Those players are still not permitted to be on the field together and they must play different positions, but the committee believes this would make it easier for the officials and for scouting purposes.
Because of the request, the committee suggested making ‘0’ a legal number.
The third major change proposed was to have officials on the field 90 minutes before the kickoff rather than 60 minutes. The hope is that this would reduce pregame skirmishes that fall outside of the officials’ purview. The proposal further suggests that at least one coach be on the field with the players and that all players are wearing their jersey number so that they can be identified.
The final proposal is a move to speed up the instant replay process. The committee recommended a guideline to have all replays completed within two minutes.
The changes will be voted on April 16.
You can read the entire release here.
They are clearly on the WRONG path with the stupidity of the targeting rule. It is easily seen whether or not a guy is intentionally aiming his helmet as a weapon. For those dillweeds to say otherwise is plain……….STOOOOOPID.
How can you speed up the instant replay and expect the replay official to have time to receive instructions from Vegas?