NCAA must Address Rule that is Ruining Football Saturdays

One of the biggest issues in college football has continued to cause angst among fans again this season. The targeting penalty is something that the NCAA must address, and they must do it fast.

The rule as it stands now is very indistinct. The official rulebook says, “players who target and contact defenseless opponents above the shoulders be ejected.” Usually, when targeting is called, a replay review occurs to make sure the hit was illegal. The review looks at everything in the rule, including if the player hit is defenseless, and if the player responsible for the hit was intentionally leading with his helmet.

The other problem with the rule is when a player is thrown out of a game for a perfectly legal hit. This occurs because the officials do not know what they are reviewing. If the NCAA would make the rule straight up, and simple, the rule would be a lot better, and would not cause as much controversy.

Targeting was created in order to increase player safety in college football. But, it has done just the opposite. More than one hundred more targeting penalties were called during the 2016 season than during the rule’s inaugural season in 2013.

In order to improve the rule, while still keeping player safety the top priority, the NCAA should simply look to its rules in college basketball. In NCAA basketball, two different fouls occur for unsportsmanlike conduct, a flagrant one foul, and a flagrant two foul, with only the flagrant two foul resulting in an ejection.

The NCAA should adopt that same policy to football and targeting. If any player hits another player with the crown of their helmet it should be an automatic 15-yard penalty no matter what happened during the play. This could be called a “Targeting I” penalty. If a player receives two Targeting I penalties in a game, that player should be ejected.

The more serious version of the new rule should be called a “Targeting II” penalty. The way how to call a Targeting II penalty is if the player, already charged with a Targeting I penalty, commits a personal foul infraction while hitting the opposing player with the crown of their helmet. This should lead a 15 yard penalty and the ejection of the guilty player for the remainder of the current game and the entire of the following game.

If this set of new rules were enforced, players would not be kicked out of games they should not have been tossed from, instead it will only be a 15-yard penalty. It would also not encourage illegal hits because a penalty of sitting out the entirety of the following game, a change from the current policy. This is a good option that would eliminate the controversy that occurs every college football Saturday when targeting is called.