The NCAA tinkers with the rules of college football every season. Last year, the two biggies were an expansion of the horse-collar tackle rule and a ban on running starts to leap and block field goals. This year brings some notable ones, too. Here are six of them.
Explaining 6 new college football rules that target shorts-wearing, kickoff-returning, cut-blocking, and more
The NCAA is cracking down on fashion, trying to get more touchbacks, and working to limit low blocks.
Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images
1. Players can’t wear shorts on the field (plus other uniform stuff).
This is not actually the most important rule change, and it’s not even completely new, but let’s draw attention to it because we’re fashion-forward. The NCAA passed a ban on shorts-wearing before the 2017 season, but it’s just now taking effect. It is a heinous attack on the players who just wanted to show some kneecap while they were on the field:
The actual rule is that players’ knees need to be totally covered.
It’s not clear why the NCAA needs this rule or how it’ll make the sport better. The organization isn’t requiring more padding, just that fabric covers more of players’ bodies. Were college football players dressing in too sexy a manner for the NCAA?
2. Kickoffs are fair-catchable, with the ball going to the 25-yard line.
You could always call for a fair catch on a kickoff, but nobody actually did it. Maybe some returners will now. In an effort to cut down on football’s most dangerous play, the NCAA gives teams the option to fair-catch a kickoff and start at their own 25. That doesn’t depend on whether they call for it in the end zone or not. Of course, if a player for some reason calls for a fair catch ahead of his own 25, his team doesn’t have to go backward.
This rule fits into a broader pattern of the NCAA trying to limit the frequency of kickoff runbacks. In 2012, it bumped them up from the kicking team’s 30-yard line to the 35 and changed the starting point after a touchback from the receiving team’s 20 to its 25. With this move, the NCAA is continuing to tilt the field to make kickoff returns less common.
3. Low blocks are more restricted than before.
Offensive players can’t block below the waist at all if they’re more than five yards downfield. It used to be that they could do it farther downfield as long as they blocked from the front, defined by the NCAA (seriously) as between the defensive player’s 10 and 2 o’clock.
All blocks below the waist have to be from the front, except for those by “interior linemen,” meaning those not on the end of a scrimmage line. Previously, some rules on low blocks depended on whether the ball was in the tackle box, not within a five-yard limit.
These aren’t the same as chop blocks, where one blocker engages a defender high and another blocks him low. Chop blocks are already illegal.
4. The 40-second play clock starts right after touchdowns and kickoffs.
That’s a pace-of-play thing. It might also have the effect of limiting touchdown celebrations, but the NCAA is already pretty serious about not letting players celebrate TDs much.
5. There’s a clock runoff after certain video reviews.
If a video review overturns a call in the last minute of either half, and if the correct call on the field wouldn’t have stopped the clock but the wrong call did, a 10-second runoff happens. This one’s a no-brainer that no one can beef about.
6. Penalty enforcement on field goals now mirrors it on extra points.
If the defense takes a personal foul or unsportsmanlike conduct penalty, the kicking team can have the yardage enforced on the ensuing kickoff.
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