Washington Week: Student Voices (O)

Column: Same game, new rules
By Michael McGuffee
FSView & Florida Flambeau, Florida State U.
August 04, 2008

Believe it or not, college football exists outside the Southeastern Conference. Shocking, I know - someone should really tell ESPN. That means rule changes the NCAA will introduce this fall to keep the game moving and crack down on unsportsmanlike conduct will apply to everyone. Even Timmy Tebow and the Gators.

The most influential change will undoubtedly come with the addition of the 40-second play clock, which will replace the traditional 25-second mark, on most plays. Whereas the 25-second clock was started on the official's ready signal after the ball was spotted, the 40-second clock instituted this season will start immediately after the previous play is ruled dead.

The rule change will favor faster-paced offenses and, according to some coaches, will give quarterbacks more time to read defenses in no-huddle situations.

The 25-second clock will still be used in situations where the game clock is stopped on the previous play, such as penalties, timeouts, first-down measurements and on any change of possession.

According to the new rules, if a player runs or is knocked out of bounds, the game clock will now start on the officials signal once the ball is set. In the past, plays ending out of bounds stopped the game clock until the ball was snapped on the ensuing play. These rules, however, will not apply during the last two minutes of each half.

The changes are meant to speed up games without limiting the number of plays teams are able to run, as well as to establish better consistency in terms of how quickly the ball will be ready to be snapped after each play - a time coaches said often varied from conference to conference.

Another point of emphasis for the NCAA this season will be cracking the whip on unsportsmanlike conduct. Added to the list of 15-yard penalties this year will be horse-collar tackles, any contact made with the "crown of a helmet" and acts of showboating.

And what is perhaps the rule, which should have been named after FSU's Deion Sanders, officials this season will flag any player who, with the ball in hand and the end zone in sight, showboats his way to the end zone (see Sanders' highlight tape).

The NCAA has also done away with the five-yard incidental facemask penalty. The infraction will be called this season only if it resembles the 15-yard personal foul variety, which is defined by any "twisting, turning or pulling" of the facemask and the correlating head within the helmet (players want to hold onto those).

According to the rules committee, sideline warnings are now also a thing of the past. Officials will be instructed to deliver teams a five-yard penalty without warning for teams violating sideline restrictions.

Replay officials will have a few more liberties as well this fall. The NCAA has expanded its list of plays that can be reviewed to include plays in which the ball carrier is ruled down and a loose ball is immediately recovered, and also situations in which a player is ruled out of bounds immediately before crossing the plane of the end zone.

The rules also allow certain field-goal attempts to be reviewed, and coaches who successfully challenge a play will be able to keep their challenge to be used again.

I, for one, fully expect to receive my challenge back once the Princeton Review overturns their decision to name UF the top party school in the country. No worries Princeton, apology accepted.

Last but not least, in the aftermath of Bill Belichick and the cheating Patriots, any attempt to record an opposing team's signals is officially and strictly prohibited (Insert Patriot choke-job/karma Super Bowl joke here).

Rules are rules, and players and coaches will have to get a feel for the changes - specifically the time changes - to avoid any costly goof-ups to start the season. Though something tells me showboating will be harder for players to abandon than the 25-second play clock.

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