NCAA football rules committee looking at handful of changes

There may be some preferable rules changes coming college football’s way in the near future.

The NCAA football rules committee met for several days in Indianapolis this week, discussing potential rule changes to the game in the coming season. Some of those rules would involve the targeting ejection rule, as well as putting a time limit on replays.

According to Ralph Russo of the Associated Press, one of the changes discussed was allowing players ejected for a targeting penalty to remain on the sidelines with their team, though they’d still not be permitted to return to the game.

Currently, players who are ejected for targeting must head to the locker room for the remainder of the game, regardless of when the foul occurs or how egregious the penalty.

Replay was another topic of conversation, as the rules committee is looking at a potential time limit to speed up the process. Russo reports that the NCAA could be looking at implementing a two-minute time limit for officials to review a play.

It would certainly help with the speed of the game in many cases.

Other rules changes that were discussed included:

• Only two players are allowed to have the same jersey number
• The number 0 would be permitted
• Officials would take the field 90 minutes prior to kickoff (currently 60 minutes)

There was also conversations about how to eliminate players faking injuries on the field in order to gain an advantage.

Proposals to rules changes must be approved by the NCAA playing rules oversight committee before they can be implemented. If approved, the rules changes would go into place for the 2020 season.

The panel will meet against on April 16 to discuss changes.