Being that it is a week after the Super Bowl, we now enter football limbo…a time of months upon months without the game we all love. We can only sit in our dorm rooms or houses and start the countdown until the next kickoff. Luckily, drastic moves take place in the off-season that catch our eye and shed a little light on the game we all miss. Instead of a Saturday afternoon top-ranked matchup or a Sunday Night Football NFL spot, we get a statement from the NCAA Football Rules Committee.
This past week, the NCAA made a striking proposal to its rule book. Like the NFL, the NCAA has asked to revise the kickoff process. The rule-change would involve the ball being spotted at the 35 yard line on the kickoff instead of the 30. Also, touch-backs result in having the ball spotted at the 25 yard line instead of the 20.
This proposal will drastically change the college special teams game, but will (in the committee’s belief) dramatically lessen injury. It was analyzed that a majority of injuries in NCAAF come on kick returns. Now, as kickers boom the ball past the uprights, teams will start at the 25 yard line. There is somewhat of a trade-off in this rule because as the kicking team you lose five yards in field position on a touch-back. And as a receiving team, you might lessen injuries towards your ‘x-factor,’ game-changing kick returner as they may not return the kick as much. Also, another side-note to this proposal is that kicking-team players can be no closer than five yards from the 35 yard line at the time of the kickoff.
Citing safety precautions, if passed, the NCAA could enact this rule before the start of the 2012 season. The committee acted quickly this off-season with the proposal after the NFL limited some of its injuries with a similar move. The NCAA plans to follow in their footsteps and make the game a little safer. But, this could have a deeper effect on the game.
Now special-teams coaches really must be decisive in determining whether they want their kicker to send the ball off the field and give the team the ball at the 25 yard line, or try to continuously use high-kicks to pin the opposing teams deep. Special teams already affects the college game immensely, and it will be even more of a factor with the new rule. Even receiving teams have to decide if they want to return the ball five yards deep in the end zone or settle for a spot at the 25 yard line.
Personally, I think the NFL’s move (and now possibly the NCAA’S) to safe-guard the kick returners was unnecessary. There were limited amounts of big kick return plays this past season as returners couldn’t maneuver past the 15 or 20 yard line. Although we’d love to keep our players healthy and suited up every week, fans love to see electrifying plays. Many of these plays come from kick returns and when you limit them, you’re limiting the chances of fans witnessing a great play, like one from a Dante Hall, Devin Hester or Ohio State-version Teddy Ginn, Jr.
Now that the NCAA is moving towards this precaution, I think the sport might actually lose some fans; because when you think about this on a business level, many people, not witnessing an emphatic 90 yard return, might change the channel. I think we need to go back to the golden age of both NCAAF and the NFL. Make the kicking team put some leg into the kick and make that returner earn his share.
We could go on and on for days about whether this is the right move to make for football. On a safety level it’s cautious but from a fan point of view, it’s too conservative. We’ll miss out on seeing a quality LSU return or a face-mask grabbing, juking and spinning dive into the end zone. At least it will be interesting to see how coaches face this challenge if it’s passed. Either way, we still have a ways to go before we see a glimpse of high level football. So let’s just sit back on cruise control for now and keep tabs on the NCAA Committee’s next move.
