NCAA at the whim of TV...

A couple of days ago, as you may know, the NCAA proposed several changes to the college football rules. Most of these changes were done not with the intent of enhancing the game, but instead at the request of TV to shorten the games.

There were some changes that were proposed which were, IMHO, good changes, because they were enacted to protect players from injury. For example, college football will follow the NFL now with regard to "horse collar" tackles, making that a penalty. Another was a greater clarification on what constitutes a "chop block".

These two rule changes have been long overdue. Too many times players who have been caught from behind and drug down by their shoulder pads, (i.e. the 'horse collar' tackle), have ended up with injuries. Some severely so. And the clarification on what is and is not a chop block makes if far more simple for referees to call, because that rule was simplified. However, on the horse collar tackle, what we do not know at this point is whether that is a 5-yard minor penalty or a 15-yard personal foul penalty. Personally, I believe it should be a 15-yarder.

Another rule that was enacted was the elimination of the 5-yard incidental face mask penalty. The problem with this rule being eliminated is that now the ref's are going to be making judgement calls as to whether to call a personal foul 15-yard face mask penalty. And I believe we will see the number of those calls go UP over the course of the season. That is a huge part of the game that can truly determine an outcome.

Another proposed change was another clarification on the helmet-to-helmet penalty. That was actually, (like the chop-block rule), a good proposal, because again, it makes it clearer what is and is not a penalty. And that helps the ref's in determining calls.

The other rule changes proposed though I think are unnecessary and actually take away from the game. The biggest of these changes is once again on the kickoffs. Last year the kickoffs were moved back 5 yards from the 35 to the 30 yard lines to try and speed up that part of the game. THIS season, in addition to that, any kick that goes out of bounds will be placed on the opposing, (kick return), team's 40 yard line, instead of the 35 yard line. That is a HUGE advantage to opposing offenses. And the ONLY reason for this rule is so that the TV networks can shorten their broadcasts. The same with the change in rule for the play clock.

Instead of starting the play clock upon the ref placement of the ball, it will start using a 40 second clock which will begin immediately after the preceding play ends. That is also a huge change in the game, and for no good reason, IMHO. While this rule parallel's the NFL game, in college, where schemes and coaching play a more dominant role in the outcome rather than the talent level on the field, this rule HEAVILY favors "hurry-up" or "no huddle" offenses. This may have the net effect that we will see a major shift in college football to less and less of a power football scheme to more of a "pass-happy", spread the field type of football.

The problem I have with these clock, kickoff and other "speed the game up" changes is that the game itself begins to look less and less like a traditional game of football and more and more like a "junk" offshoot of the game. I mean really, what is next? Are we going to see the NCAA go the X-Football league route and ban 'fair catches' on kickoffs next, because a fair catch call added a whole 2 minutes to each game? This rule does nothing to truly enhance the game of football. And in direct effect, actually DE-emphasizes a part of the game that is virtually 1/3rd of the strategy of the game of football.

I mean really, at this point, why even BOTHER with kicking off? The TV networks hate that anyway, so let's just eliminate that part of the game altogether and upon scores, just give the ball to the opposing team offense at their own 35 yard line to start. That will take a whole 4-5 minutes off of the game right?

I do not mind any change that actually "enhances" the game of football. But some of the rules changes being proposed do not do that, and are only being proposed because of pressure by TV networks because THEY do not like how "long" the game takes? Oh, right, THAT is a reason to make that change! (rolling my eyes here).

Basically what is slowly happening is that the game of college football is not changed for the betterment of the game, but instead is looking more and more like a government entity being swayed by a powerful lobbyist. And there is no good reason for that to be the case.