2017 Rules Changes: A Year To Late

With only a few days until the 2017 college football season really gets underway, it is a good time to take a look at the rules changes that will be taking effect this season.  Every offseason the NCAA rules committee sits down and reviews proposals for rules changes, implementing some and discarding most.  Some years the implemented changes are major and are immediately noticeable by fans while other years the changes are much more subtle and are easy to miss.  This year’s changes are fairly subtle but one of them will certainly get Ohio State fans talking.  Below I will summarize the rules changes and my own view of them as a high school football official.

Horse Collar Tackles

The horse collar tackle rule has been expanded to include more actions.  Previously a horse collar tackle required the defender to grab the inside back or side collar of the shoulder pads or jersey, under the new rule grabbing the nameplate are on the back of the jersey can now be considered a horse collar.  It is important to note that for something to be a horse collar tackle, the defender has to grab one of these specific areas and then immediately pulling the ball carrier down backwards or to the side.  It is not a horse collar tackle if the ball carrier breaks free or if the defender then uses their other hand to pull down the ball carrier another way.

I think this is a great tweak to the rule.  Horse collar tackles are a safety issue the danger of grabbing and dragging a player down from the back of their upper body is the same whether the hand is inside or outside the collar.  This will require players to be much more careful about where they are grabbing on the ball carrier, as opposed to just making sure that they didn’t get their hand inside the jersey/shoulder pads.  From an officiating perspective, this will be pretty easy to call as the nameplate area is obvious and it is easy to see when it is being grabbed.

 

Field Goal Blocks

In a rule that Ohio State fans wish had been implemented last year, it is now a foul for a defensive player to run forward from beyond the neutral zone and then leap or hurdle in an obvious attempt to blog a field goal or extra point try.  A player may still leap if they start from a stationary position but the blocked field goal by Penn State’s Marcus Allen last season would now be a foul because Allen had a running start. 

This is another player safety rule that was implemented due to injuries that occurred when the leaping defensive player landed on the back of an offensive lineman.  This will be another easy one to call as it will be easy to notice the defensive player getting a running start. 

 

Pants

Beginning in the 2018 season, players will have to wear knee pads and pants that cover these pads and the knees.  This had previously been recommended in the rules but not required.  The reason for the delay in implementing this rule is because many schools had already purchased equipment for this year and while schools like Ohio State could afford new equipment easily, smaller schools aren’t in the same situation.

This is primarily a safety issue as wearing more pads obviously will reduce the number of injuries that occur.  I also support it because the really short pants that look like biker shorts look rather stupid.