It does seem a little early to start the 2024 college football thread, but the NCAA has announced its proposed rule changes, which need to be approved by the Playing Rules Oversight Panel on April 18.
There will be a two minute warning in each half. Among other things, this stops a problem where a team might get a first down with 2:01 in the first half, and the clock continues to run past 2 minutes, even though had it been with 1:59 left, the clock would have stopped to move the chains.
Horse collar tackles inside the tackle box are now illegal.
In FBS only, one player on the field per team may have a wireless communication device to talk to the head coach. The device must be shut off with 15 on the play clock or the snap, whichever happens first.
Tablets (but no larger screens) may be used to review in-game video (but no other data). The broadcast feed, and separate feeds from the team’s sideline and behind the team’s end zone, may be used.
The first time a player is penalized for having an illegal uniform, it is an illegal equipment penalty and the player must sit out a play; each subsequent time, the team is charged a timeout, or receives a delay of game penalty if the team is out of timeouts.
Head coaches may now talk to sideline reporters at the end of the first and third quarters.
Division III now joins the rest of the NCAA in not stopping the clock on a first down except in the last two minutes of each half.
A few updates (note some of these apply to other sports as well):
Schools may now “facilitate” meetings between athletes and outside NIL providers, so long as the schools themselves don’t pay the athletes anything for NIL (that is still considered “pay-to-play”).
An athlete that transfers and maintains Progress Towards Degree at their new school (the quick version: 40% of the credits needed to graduate after two years, 60% after three, and 80% after four) can play immediately without it counting as their free transfer.
Also, the “graduate transfer rule” has been changed so that the athlete no longer needs to change their field of study to something the old school did not have, although to be honest, when was that ever a problem?
Here’s a football-related one: later this week, there will be a committee vote on whether to change how the FCS football tournament is bracketed.
Right now, only the 8 teams that get first round byes are seeded; the rest are placed geographically in terms of those eight teams.
The new version will have 16 seeded teams, presumably with the eight unseeded ones paired up against the 9-16 seeds in the first round based on geography. The winner of the first round game with the 16 seeds plays the 1 seed in the second round, the winner of the game with the 15 seed plays the 2 seed, and so on. This also means that the 9-16 seeds have first crack at hosting their first round games.
Finally, what is left of the Pac-12 will no longer be allowed to vote on NCAA Bylaws that apply only to “autonomy conferences” (the NCAA’s term for the “Power 4”).
Actually, the Playing Rules Oversight Panel rejected this rules change. The illegal equipment penalty will remain as a five-yard penalty. And yes, this has gotten to be a noticeable problem, mainly with things like tailbone pads sticking out from under the uniform pants.
I thought these bright kids in college could look at the scoreboard and know when there are two minutes left in the half. I think this is about squeezing in a commercial.
I’d prefer they go back to stopping the clock for moving the chains throughout the game. Why should the clock tick off unusable seconds waiting for the chain gang?
I’d prefer getting rid of coaches talking to sideline reporters. I have yet to see an insightful question asked by a sideline reporter.
LOL, FSU spends the entire offseason blaming the NCAA, the ACC, ESPN and the Illuminati for them not being in the national championship, then they open the season with this turd:
With that said, I would never in a million years cared to have watched Colorado vs an FCS school. Yet, there I was. Only because of Coach Prime. I really wanted NDSU to win.
I’m a fan of Notre Dame. I think I welcome having other teams that people either love or hate, but rarely indifferent about.
It’s the Pac-2.
Washington looked good. I think they may be a dark horse to get back into the playoffs and from there anything can happen.
Oregon proved they’re overrated.
FSU: ha ha ha ha ha ha
This is all the ACC’s fault. BC and Georgia Tech were supposed to just roll over so FSU could waltz to the national championship unimpeded. All the more reason for them to leave the conference. They’ll have a much better shot playing those cream puffs in the SEC.
