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6/26 Roundtable - What Rule Needs Changing?
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CollegeFootballNews.com
Posted Jun 26, 2009
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6/26 Roundtable - What rule would you like to see changed? It's the Thursday topic in the CFN Daily Roundtable Discussion.
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CFN Daily Roundtables
 June
26
What rule would you like to see
changed?
Over the next several weeks, as part of the CFN 2009 Preview, we'll
examine some of the key questions going into the year with a
daily discussion of the big topics.
Pete
Fiutak,
CFN
Yes, I'm part of
the problem. You can check me out at
twitter.com/CFN_Fiu and find
out future roundtable topics and other random musings.
Q: What rule would you like to see changed?
A: I'm keeping this on the field,
considering there are some major off-the-field, NCAA-like rules I'd like
to see made. Some of these changes below are philsophical.
1.
A player needs to be touched to be down.
It always
stinks when a receiver gets the ball in the open field on a slant
pattern, slips, and is down through no fault of his own. It also seems a
little chickenspit when a quarterback is "sacked" after getting his foot
stepped on by a pulling guard. Make the defender have to make the play.
2. Lead with your helmet on a hit, get suspended for the
next game and the head coach gets fined.
Those
helmet-to-helmet kill shots that the NFL doles out mega-fines for on
Tuesday mornings need to be stopped in college football and they need to
be stopped now. I'm not talking about a shoulder-to-helmet hit that
knocks a player out; that's football. I'm talking about the
brain-smashing, helmet-leading shots that cause life-altering
concussions. I'm always preaching that the players need to be treated
more like pros in a variety of ways, but when it comes to the dangerous
hits, it's important to remember that these guys have to go to class on
Monday, and they're probably supposed to be studying on Sunday. We have
instant replay now so everything is on tape. The NCAA needs to be able
to show some teeth and suspend a player who comes up with one of those
hits, and the head coach needs to be fined for not doing a better job of
teaching his players.
3. Ditch the extra point in
overtime.
I love the college football overtime set-up. It's
far better than than the NFL version (as is the instant replay set-up),
and the NFL knows it but is too stubborn to change them. But why force
teams to go for two after a few OT possessions? Why not just do it right
away? At the end of a long, hard 60-minute game, if the idea is to not
tax the players more than necessary, then ditch the extra point and
force teams to go for two from the start. No one would have a problem
with this.
4. Force every team to start the season with
a home game against an FCS team with strict instructions to the
pollsters that these games don't count.
The NFL gets a slew
of preseason games to tune up, warm up, and allow the teams time to
jell. Alabama and Virginia Tech play on day one. The overall product of
college football would be far, far better if everyone got a warm-up game
against an FCS team that didn't count in the record books. This would
allow some teams to get some young players time in live action, it would
allow others to get their offensive lines in order, it would allow
everyone to sharpen up the timing, figure out the quarterback situation,
and settle several position battles. It would also be a nice payday for
all the FBS schools. This would also encourage better matchups in the
regular season with the "cupcake" matchup out of the way.
5.
"Half the distance."
I've never understood this. A
player jumps offsides the 45-yard-line and it's moved five yards. A hold
gets called on the five and it's moved half the distance to the goal
line. Why doesn't it get moved as far as possible? Put the ball on the
one inch line. The half the distance rule all but encourages penalties
since the punishment isn't that bad.
Richard
Cirminiello,
CFN
Q:
What rule would you like to see changed?
A:
On the field, I’m a strong proponent of tweaking the current overtime
system. Now, I’m not talking an NFL-style modification, but a simple
change that would make the extra session more sensible. My biggest beef
is starting drives on the 25-yard line. That’s akin to a fat-and-forty
softball rule that begins extra innings with a man already on second
base. It’s nonsensical. There’s nothing worse than a 17-17 slugfest that
winds up looking like an Arena game broke out. Simple suggestion: Move
the line of scrimmage back 10 or 15 yards, so the offenses at least have
to make a first down to be in legitimate field goal range. Heck, the
defenses are gassed at this point. Shouldn’t we give them a better
chance of keeping points off the board?
Away from the field, I’ve
always despised the NCAA rule that forces student-athletes to sit out a
season when they have the audacity to seek a transfer. I don’t care what
their reason may be. It doesn’t seem equitable in a country built on
freedom of choice to penalize
kids for flexing their individual muscles. I don’t care if they’re
looking for more playing time, a certain system, or a campus with better
Wi-Fi. We should provide these guys with the same latitude as every
other individual in society, or at the very least, lighten up when it
comes to hardship cases.
Matthew
Zemek, CFN
Q:
What rule would you like to see changed?
A:
Pertaining to the game on the field:
EVERY CALL (to the fullest extent allowable) OUGHT TO BE REVIEWABLE BY
REPLAY. (This applies to every other sport, for that matter.)
Seriously--the capital letters (hence, the printed/typed equivalent of
shouting words out loud) are justified, because there's simply no reason
for certain kinds of plays to fall outside the purview of replay.
Intentional grounding, pass interference, late hits (or not), face masks
(or not)--these and other hugely consequential calls (or the lack of
them) profoundly affect the outcomes of games, and yet they're not
reviewable. In a sport played at breakneck speed with bonecrushing
ferocity, it's silly to insist on keeping some plays outside the domain
of replay. Even in the NFL, where officials are faster and sharper than
in college, there are still several plays per game that are extremely
hard to call in live action. All sports need more extensive jurisdiction
for replay, but football leads the list, and college football most of
all. Too much money is invested in the sport--by a number of different
parties and entities--for certain calls to not be reviewable. In other
words, if you're going to call this a business (it shouldn't be a
business, but it is, and social critics like me have to cope with that
lamentable fact), then darnit, RUN college football like a business and
satisfy your paying customers.
Pertaining to the sport off the field:
Allow players the same freedom of movement as coaches currently enjoy,
without sanctions or mandated periods of inactivity. Until this happens,
the notion of big-time college sports being a slave labor camp will
retain a certain measure of credibility and legitimacy.
Hunter Ansley,
Publisher,
DraftZoo.com
Q:
What rule would you like to see changed?
A: I’m
not 100% sure it falls under the rule category,
but one thing has really bothered me about
football on all levels for quite some time.
Imagine you’re a quarterback.
You drop back, you’ve got a little time
in the pocket, and there he is.
A wide open receiver streaking across the
middle.
So you hit him perfectly in stride, and
then out of nowhere the ball ricochets off his
chest spinning like a kickoff into the air
before dropping into the safety’s hands.
Now you’re on the sidelines, and while the
receiver may be wearing a sheepish expression,
you’re the one with the interception on your
record. So,
as implausible as it may be, I would love it if those types of
interceptions counted against the receiver.
Why not? He could have
receptions, yards, yards per catch, touchdown, and then a special “all
the time you screwed up and muffed an easy catch which resulted in a
turnover” category.
Jon Miller,
Publisher, HawkeyeNation.com
Q: What rule would you like to see changed?
A:
The clock rules that have been put into place in recent years tick me off. Why
in the world would we want fewer plays per game, due to the game being shortened
through the clock rules? Less college football is a bad thing, no matter how
you slice it. Also, the rule from last year that makes
any face mask penalty a 15-yard foul is a bit much. There are several instances
where there is an accidental grabbing of the mask. Do we really have to mark
off 15 yards? Also, some more evaluation of the punt return rules needs to take
place. I am all for protecting those guys, because that is a dangerous play to
begin with. Then add in a gunner coming down the field full speed at you and
not waiting until you at least catch the ball before you lay into him is just
scary. But there is some incidental contact of the non-headknocking-off kind
that probably doesn't deserve a 15 yard penalty, either.
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