General

The NCAA Prefers Its Taunting Rules To Be Gray, Thanks

Apr 16, 2010, 8:00 PM UTC

â†µThe NCAA's byzantine system forces rule changes to go through severalâ†µstages of increasing finality, allowing complaints about theâ†µcollege football rule change that makes a live-ballâ†µtaunting penalty a live-ball foul to start months ago. Poorâ†µsportsmanship, once punished with an annoyingly long extra point orâ†µimproved field position for the opposition, now has the power to wipeâ†µout touchdowns. Now the thing is official. The â†µcomplaintsâ†µcontinueâ†µat a frenziedâ†µpace,â†µwith even Mack Brown gettingâ†µin on the action. Let your author join the pile. â†µ

â†µâ†µIn the aftermath of Jake Locker Unsportsmanlike Fiasco and Multipleâ†µInsane SEC Unsportsmanlike Fiasco, everyone thinks this is a bad idea.â†µThey should: it’s a terrible idea. But what’s striking is that the ruleâ†µis laced with such ambiguity that even the people passing it aren’tâ†µwriting off the possibility that lethal calls may be made for no reasonâ†µwhatsoever. Get The Picture picked out â†µthisâ†µquote from Grant Teaff (pictured to the right), the executive director of the Americanâ†µFootball Coaches’ Association:â†µ

â†µâ†µâ‡¥â†µâ‡¥Say some mammoth defensive lineman causes a fumble, then bends overâ†µâ‡¥to catch his breath even as the teammate who scooped up the loose ballâ†µâ‡¥is running it back for a score? Fair or foul?â†µâ‡¥
â†µâ‡¥â†µâ‡¥“That’s a good one,” Teaff said. “I imagine it’s one of those casesâ†µâ‡¥where the refs may have to go back and take another look.”â†µâ‡¥

â†µâ†µâ†µGuaaaaaaaghghghg. Everything about those sentences is abominable.â†µFirst that something like “bending over” seems like a thingâ†µthat might get flagged for taunting, then because the head of the AFCAâ†µthinks a taunting flag is reviewable, and finally because the same guyâ†µthinks there thinks there is a whole class of activities that will bring dubious flags out. â†µ

â†µ

â†µGiven the things we've seenâ†µdeemed to beâ†µtaunting in just the last couple years, Teaff is right about thatâ†µlatter idea. And what's the reward here? The game won't be any safer. It won't be any more exciting. It will be slightly less likely to have an ugly moment where a player does something unsportsmanlike. And it willâ†µonly be slight: taunting is already a penalty. â†µ

â†µâ†µIs that worth even one touchdown erroneously called back? One fanbaseâ†µready to storm the castle if they can only figure out where it is?â†µThe answer is obviously “no.” Some poor referee is going toâ†µget overzealous with this and disaster will ensue and everyone willâ†µstonewall and thirty years from now you’ll be able to travel to aâ†µcollege town somewhere in America and make an old man cry by bringingâ†µthe game up.â†µ

â†µâ†µSometimes I wonder if the NCAA is actually a dadaist organization.â†µThis year the basketball committee implemented a version of the NBA’sâ†µno-charge circle, except withoutâ†µthe circle. Refs were just supposed to eyeball it. In the nationalâ†µchampionship game, a scrappy guy from Duke set up virtually under theâ†µbasket and was about to be subject to an obvious blocking call when theâ†µGreat Fairy of Subjectivity swooped in and turned a Gordon Haywardâ†µand-one into an offensive foul in a game Duke eventually won by two.â†µGood job saving a couple bucks on paint. â†µ

â†µâ†µDespite this championship-swinging event and the copious evidenceâ†µthat giving college football referees a bunch of gray area is a recipeâ†µfor disaster, the NCAA forges ahead in the name of... what?â†µSportsmanship,â†µI guess. Hooray for sportsmanship. â†µ

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This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.

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