NCAA Rules Change-Football

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INDIANAPOLIS — Eye black with messages and wedge blocks will be banned from college football this fall, and taunting in the field of play will start costing teams points in 2011.On Thursday, the NCAA's Playing Rules Oversight Panel approved the three rules changes.

One year after the NFL banned wedge blocking on kickoffs because of safety concerns, the NCAA followed the lead. The new rule says that when the team receiving a kickoff has more than two players standing within two yards of one another, shoulder to shoulder, it will be assessed a 15-yard penalty -- even if there is no contact between the teams.

The reason: NCAA studies have shown that 20 percent of all injuries occurring on kickoffs result in concussions.
"Everybody is looking to make sure we have a safe environment for the players," said Grant Teaff, executive director of the American Football Coaches Association. "On kickoffs, you have a lot of steam on both sides and you usually have what is called a 'wedge buster.' This will eliminate some of that."

The hope is it will reduce concussions, an issue that has received greater attention over the past year.

The NCAA deemed it so important that it made a rare rules change in an off-year of the normal 2-year process.

But it's the taunting rule that will create the biggest buzz.

Currently, players who are penalized for taunting on their way to the end zone draw a 15-yard penalty on the extra point attempt, 2-point conversion attempt or the ensuing kickoff.

Beginning in 2011, live-ball penalties will be assessed from the spot of the foul and eliminate the score. Examples include players finishing touchdown runs by high-stepping into the end zone or pointing the ball toward an opponent.
Celebration penalties following a score will continue to be assessed on conversion attempts or the ensuing kickoff.

"I think one of the reasons it's been looked at is that when a penalty occurs on the field, it's normally taken from the spot," Teaff said. "This was the only occurrence that it wasn't taken from the spot, so they wanted to change that."

Taunting has caused an annual debate among college football players, coaches and fans, and last season's big controversy stemmed from Georgia receiver A.J. Green receiving a 15-year personal foul penalty after he caught a go-ahead touchdown pass late in a game against LSU.

The yardage from the penalty was assessed on the kickoff and helped LSU get into position to drive for the winning score. Southeastern Conference officials said later that there was no video evidence to support the flag on Green.

A third change bans the use of eye black containing symbols or messages, a trend that grew in popularity because of the use by Heisman Trophy winners Reggie Bush and Tim Tebow.


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[david aka the TYZ]

Wow, that taunting penalty could be huge. How soon will we see someone get a TD erased? I say week 3. How soon for a major team? I could see the SEC refs going nuts with this one.

First off let me say I don't like this rule change. While I don't condone taunting, its a part of the game. Guys jaw at each other all game. All of a sudden it's not right when you're about to score on a guy? Mostly I don't like judgement calls by refs determining the outcome of the game. Eliminating a score on a judgement call will assuredly lead to more controversy. I just hope our Bearcats don't get caught doing this.

 

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I don't like it. I think if you take away some of the fun, it takes away from the game.

Every time a team scores a td, the refs grab a player before they can even do the 'jump and bump' with a teammate. Let them play. If a player is showing a team/fan base up...then penalize them. There are already taunting rules around, apply that.

 

[david aka the TYZ]

I don't like it. I think if you take away some of the fun, it takes away from the game.

Every time a team scores a td, the refs grab a player before they can even do the 'jump and bump' with a teammate. Let them play. If a player is showing a team/fan base up...then penalize them. There are already taunting rules around, apply that.

I agree. I can just see some blowhard ref throwing a flag on a pick six because the guy struts into the endzone (which happens plenty when a guy jumps a route and is home free). Emotions are so high in the game and there are some big time rivalries, let them play. Assess a penalty as they always have. I understand the logic that a guy is still in play, but realistically the play is over if the player can high step or show the ball. Imagine Mardy breaking open a kickoff return and looking back to make sure there's no defenders and there happens to be one close and that's viewed by some ref as taunting for running in while looking backwards. I know in theory this is supposed to be called on the blatantly obvious calls, but refs here lately have made some pretty bad calls. This just opens the door for a bad call to actually change the score of the game.