Three New College Football Rules Will Be Implemented In 2010

The big news during the college football offseason was the possible expansion of many college football conferences in the NCAA. Ultimately only a few teams changed conferences but while everybody wondered about the fate of Texas and the Big 12 there were some new college football rules that were passed by the NCAA and were overlooked because of the other College Football News.

The rule that was passed by the NCAA and is sure to be debated the most is a new rule that promotes sportsmanship and tries to rid college football of taunting. Specifically the rule passed by the NCAA is trying to cut down on players taunting the defense as they run into the end zone. The most common form of taunting in this situation is high-stepping but any thing the referee determines is taunting will have new repercussions.

Previously the penalty for taunting your way into the end zone is a 15 yard penalty on the ensuing extra point, 2 point conversion or kickoff. The new penalty passed by the NCAA will cause a dead ball at the spot of the penalty (the spot where the player taunted the other team) and will eliminate the touchdown. This is an extremely significant change in rules. The old penalty had almost no impact on the penalized team but the new rule will take touchdowns away from the guilty team.

Another new rule is that college football players are no longer allowed to have messages in their eye black. Messages in the eye black of college football players have been done for several years but became even more popular due to University Florida quarterback Tim Tebow using his eye black to display an inspiring Bible verse each week.

The third and final new rule change passed by the NCAA in college football for 2010 is the elimination of wedge blocks. A wedge block occurs during a kickoff when the receiving team has blockers line up next to each other and run down the field side by side. From now on blockers on the receiving team of a kickoff will have to stand more than two yards apart from each other. The new rule was implemented because a study showed twenty percent of the injuries that occurred on kickoffs were concussions and the NCAA is trying to cut down on concussion injuries.