Football rules committee proposes new rule changes to targeting

The NCAA Football rules committee met in Indianapolis this week to discuss a few new tweaks for the upcoming season. While a couple rule adjustments were recommended, the two most notable proposed changes were in regards to their targeting rules.

“The committee, chaired by Stanford coach David Shaw, proposed a progressive penalty for those student-athletes who receive a second targeting foul in the same season. In addition to being disqualified from that game, the player would be suspended for the team’s next contest.”

The NCAA is completely insane. The vast majority of targeting calls do not appear to be malicious in any way. It’s always a quick play where a player lowers his shoulder to hit and it happens to hit the other player in the head. The last thing anybody wants is more suspensions for players over such a subjective rule.

These targeting suspensions already cause massive ramifications when a player has to miss a half of a game, let alone a full contest. Last season, Kash Daniel missed the first half of the loss against Texas A&M because of a targeting call. It would’ve been ridiculous for him to miss a full game if that were to happen twice in a season.

Besides the increased suspension, the rules officials also introduced a change to targeting replays.

“The second adjustment to the targeting rule deals with the instant replay review. Instant replay officials will be directed to examine all aspects of the play and confirm the foul when all elements of targeting are present. If any element of targeting cannot be confirmed, then the replay official will overturn the targeting foul. There will not be an option for letting the call on the field stand during a targeting review.”

Now, this change makes some sense, but only in theory. This won’t change every single bad targeting call. Plus, now these reviews will take even longer. So, not only is the NCAA trying to introduce a harsher penalty for targeting, they also want to extend the amount of time it takes for reviews.

The other rule changes were in regards to kickoff and overtime. The committee voted to band two-man wedge on kickoffs. They will continue to evaluate kickoffs and consider future adjustments in upcoming seasons. For overtime, the committee proposed to run alternating 2-point plays after the fifth overtime period. This is to limit the number of plays and end the game more rapidly.