Pretty soon, the commercials will have to take "Football Timeouts"

I realize this is almost old news at this point, so I won’t present it as breaking by any means. What I want to do is pick apart what exactly each of these rules would mean to college football, whenever they’re approved. Frankly, I hope sooner than later.

“… after a year of consideration, the committee proposed a 40/25 second play clock system to encourage a consistent pace of play. All rules proposals will be sent for membership comment and considered by the Playing Rules Oversight Panel before taking effect.”

What I think: This is a good step for CFB. But it’s being taken for the wrong reason. More on that later. But the idea of a 40-second play clock will help keep the game flowing, and allow NFL fans to easily transition to watching CFB.

“A main charge of the rules committee is to enhance the safety of our student-athletes,” said Michael Clark, chair of the committee and head coach at Bridgewater (Virginia) College. “In recent years, the committee has attempted to address head-down contact and dangerous helmet contact in general. The committee is directing game officials to strictly penalize head-down contact as well as players that target defenseless opponents.”

What I think: MICHAEL ROBINSON. I remember watching, live, M-Rob lowering his shoulder into Minnesota defensive back Brandon Owens, who decided to lower his own body—helmet first—into the tackle. Robinson never even hit the ground, but Owens crumbled like a rag doll. At the time, it was a great hit, but later turned out to be very tragic for Owens; he never played again. I have one question for Clark, just who would have been penalized on that play? Robinson lowered his shoulder into the tackle, Owens lowered his helmet into Robinson, but Owens ended up getting hurt? Would you penalize Owens, who was on a gurney a few minutes later?

“A proposal relating to the chop block rule... Another safety proposal deals with a dangerous tackle – commonly referred to as a “horse collar.” Any player will now be prohibited from grabbing the inside back collar of the shoulder pads or jersey, or the inside collar of the side of the shoulder pads or jersey, and immediately pulling the runner down.”

What I think: This one’s not really much of an impact. Players will just have to learn how to properly tackle. That’s all.

“Two other major proposals deal with the pace of play. The rules committee passed a 40/25 second play clock system in an effort to standardize the pace of play. Unless the game is stopped for administrative reasons (e.g., change of possession, injury, etc.), the offensive team will have 40 seconds to snap the ball after it is declared dead.”

What I think: Already covered.

“Additionally, the committee made a change in the timing of the game after a play in which a runner goes out of bounds. Except in the last two minutes of each half, the game clock will start on a signal from the referee, rather than on the snap.”

What I think: This one’s huge. For years, everyone’s known that in CFB, you could completely stop the clock by going out of bounds. Not any more folks. But, as I said in the beginning, this is for the wrong reason. Why did it take so long for the NCAA to propose this, and seriously consider adopting it? Is it a coincidence that it comes right after the NCAA tried to cater to the telecoms by providing more commercial time, rather than actually shortening the game? This is about as transparent as Bush trying to protect the telecoms under the guise of national security (oops, sorry, but I couldn’t resist that one). I could be wrong (about the length of football games). I hope this really does shorten them, but if they are only three or five minutes shorter, you’ll know who to blame, and who is really responsible for deleting game time to insert commercial time.

“The committee also made the following proposals:
• In the rules relating to instant replay, plays where a fumble leads to an immediate recovery may be reviewed.
• In replay rules, a coach that challenges a play and is successful will retain the right to challenge one more time for a maximum of two.
• When a kickoff goes out of bounds, the receiving team may accept the ball at the 40-yard line instead of the 35.
• The incidental five-yard face mask foul was removed. All face mask fouls (pulling, twisting or turning) will be a 15-yard penalty.
• A yardage penalty for sideline control was instituted.”

What I think about these: They’re all nice, simple rule changes. The one that sticks out is the face mask change. I hate the incidental. HATE IT. How many times have we sat through games, wondering why one team got the five-yarder, but the other didn’t? Just go by the personal foul variety. It makes it much easier.

But I’m sure all of this is truly for the benefit of CFB, right? Right.