The Rest of College Football

[Tony G]

Toledo > Ypsi

[lineygoblue]

Maybe, but just barely.

[SeanB]

Some proposed rule changes:

http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/7560237/ncaa-proposes-moving-kickoffs-30-35

It's not the KO rule that raised my eyebrows, but the helmet rule. I think Denard must have lost his helmet a half-dozen times or more this past season. It's a damn stupid rule if you ask me. I don't get it. I can understand protecting against concussions and other head injuries, but usually a helmet comes off because it's yanked off. You can bet defenders will be doing all they can to rip off helmets of opposing players as much as possible if that stupid rule is put in place.

It would be a pretty big advantage to the defense if a team is missing their QB, best RB or WR on a big 3rd down play, or if a key defender is out on a crucial potential scoring play because some OLinemen ripped a helmet off.

[lineygoblue]

The way I see it is, if they adopt that helmet rule, they'll have to piggyback it with a penalty to penalize any player that deliberately knocks off an opponent's helmet. Treat it the same as a face mask penalty.

[Hannibal]

If they are so concerned about injuries on kickoffs, enough to completely neuter them, then they should just skip the entire process and give teams that ball on the 20. Between the extra point and the kickoff, the NFL now follows a touchdown with two commercial breaks and two completely worthless, boring plays.

[lineygoblue]

The only thing about eliminating the kickoff, is that you would also eliminate the on-side kick. That would take away some strategic moves late in a ballgame.

[Mike]

If it ain't broke....

[Hannibal]

In the NFL, a score is followed by approximately five minutes of boredom. It's the only sport where this happens routinely. It's broken enough for me to be probably the biggest reason I don't watch the NFL anymore, and college is trending that ways. They've already started the "touchdown-commercial-kickoff-commerical" bullshit on occasion.

[Mike]

I much prefer to record games and watch them when i can FF through the garbage time. Usually takes about an hour to watch the whole game. I've even gotten to the point of recording the game even if I'm home with the opportunity to watch it live. If you wait about an hour and a half after kickoff and skip through all the bullshit, you'll be caught up live by the end of the game.

[Paul L]

Exactly; TiVo/DVRs are a wonderful thing. Do that with all games/shows/movies.

[Hannibal]

I do the same thing, but I hate how an NFL game flows so much that I don't even want to be bothered to pick up the remote control that often.

[Mackenzie]

I much prefer to record games and watch them when i can FF through the garbage time. Usually takes about an hour to watch the whole game. I've even gotten to the point of recording the game even if I'm home with the opportunity to watch it live. If you wait about an hour and a half after kickoff and skip through all the bullshit, you'll be caught up live by the end of the game.

Absolutely! I do pretty much the exact same thing with every sport as well as most other programs. We are DVR junkies and watch very few commercials.

[entropy]

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama -- Bring back athlete-only dorms with unlimited food. Let coaches talk publicly about their recruits. Allow transfers in all sports to immediately play.

Those are among the ideas being discussed as the NCAA tries to produce a slimmer and more efficient rulebook, according to documents obtained by The Birmingham News.

An NCAA working group that's studying current rules released concepts to schools last week for discussion. The goal is to crack down on what the NCAA perceives as major threats to its principle of amateurism while legalizing smaller issues, some of which are currently unenforceable.

"It's very complicated to take a 400-plus-page rule book and shrink it down to something sensible," NCAA President Mark Emmert said in The Indianapolis Star last month. "But we're going to do it."

For instance, the working group cautioned that its guiding principles related to academic standards could result in transfers being allowed to play immediately. That could happen in all sports by ending the residency requirement that makes transfers attend a new school for one year before becoming eligible to play.

The working group wrote that transfers could play immediately if leaving a school doesn't affect progress toward graduation, but noted that current transfer limits could be included in a new bylaw. Football, basketball, baseball and ice hockey currently have the most restrictive transfer rules, although waivers are sometimes granted for graduates.


Another topic up for discussion is athletic dorms. Once enormously popular, especially in the South as Bear Bryant mastered the concept at Alabama, athletic dorms were banned in 1991 when the NCAA adopted a rule to phase them out by 1996.

The NCAA working group wants to eliminate those restrictions and require schools to establish their own policies on housing athletes. The group said that deregulating living arrangements supports the idea that athletes should be treated the same as all students, meaning school policies related to housing blocks should apply.

Many of the working group's suggestions are related to recruiting rules. For instance, the group wants to let coaches talk publicly about unsigned recruits, either throughout the recruiting process or once the player has committed. Current rules that prevent publicizing interest in a recruit stemmed from a desire to minimize a "keep up with the Joneses mentality" and not give schools a recruiting edge, the group wrote.

The working group said technology and social media make such comments difficult to monitor and enforce, and it's "arguable" whether the publicity influences a recruit's college decision. It may be necessary to still ban media presence during recruiting contacts and visits, the group said.

As the NCAA tries to deregulate itself, it also wants to expand restrictions against third-party individuals involved in the recruiting process who get hired by schools for non-coaching jobs. There's a current rule in men's basketball, but the NCAA working group believes this third-party trend extends to other sports or soon will.

Other suggestions by the working group include:

• Eliminate restrictions on the number of off-campus recruiters at one time. The rule was adopted to contain costs, but the group found no evidence that it has worked and said it's hard to enforce. This was the so-called "Tiger Prowl" rule related to Auburn football coaches blanketing the state in stretch limos.

• Give schools more freedom to govern what happens on official visits by recruits. Eliminate rules once put in place to address isolated cases of perceived recruiting advantages.

• Eliminate rules about how to scout opponents since video is now widespread. The Division I Legislative Council still prefers prohibiting live scouting in all sports except for same-site competition games.

• No longer require coaches to become annually certified on NCAA rules. Schools would be responsible for educating coaches about recruiting rules.

• Let schools have earlier access to recruits in all sports, starting on June 15 after the recruit's sophomore year of high school. The idea is for recruits and schools to make more informed decisions.

• Remove restrictions on what schools, conferences and the NCAA can provide for team entertainment, such as professional sports tickets and movie tickets.

• Give schools greater discretion to provide financial relief to family members of an athlete who are sick or injured. The bylaws would remove the reference of "life-threatening."

There's even a suggestion to let schools provide unlimited food to athletes. This appears to be the offspring of a Big East proposal last August that would allow schools to provide unlimited fruit, nuts and bagels -- "including bagel spreads" -- to athletes. The proposal, which became public during the messy conference realignment process, was mocked nationally as a rare issue that the NCAA could control.

*****************

WORKING GROUP PROPOSALS

An NCAA working group studying current rules has released some concepts to member schools for discussion of changes. The goal is to crack down on what the organization sees as major threats to amateurism while legalizing some smaller issues. Click on the links to read the documents supporting the changes:

• Bylaw 11, among other things, would eliminate coaching categories, outside compensation restrictions and remove the restriction on the number of coaches who can recruit off-campus.

• Bylaw 12, among other things, would create a standard for "actual and necessary" expenses, allow training expenses to be paid by entities other than just the U.S. Olympic Committee.

• Bylaw 13, would allow for earlier contact with prospective student-athletes and reduce NCAA restrictions on official visits.

• Bylaw 14, relates to academic standards and would eliminate legislation that is duplicative, inconsequential and/or is unenforceable.

• Bylaw 15, deals with athletic aid and would eliminate duplicative legislation.

• Bylaw 16, would modify academic counseling and support services, medical expenses and allow athletic dorms.

[entropy]

North Texas football coach Dan McCarney has been hospitalized with an unspecified medical problem.

Athletic director Rick Villarreal said Monday that McCarney was taken to the hospital Sunday after experiencing what he called "medical difficulties." McCarney remained under observation Monday afternoon.

Villarreal says he doesn't know exactly what caused McCarney to fall ill.

The 58-year-old McCarney has coached the Mean Green since November 2010. He was the coach at Iowa State from 1995 to 2006 and an assistant at Florida, South Florida, Wisconsin and Iowa.

McCarney was born in Iowa City and played offensive line for the Hawkeyes in the early 1970s. He spent more than a decade as an assistant at Iowa before taking over as Wisconsin's defensive coordinator under Barry Alvarez in 1990.

He landed his first head coaching job with the Cyclones, transforming them from a laughingstock to a competitive Big 12 program in his 12 seasons in Ames.

McCarney led Iowa State to five bowl games and was chosen the Big 12's Coach of the Year in 2004. He was forced out near the end of a disappointing season in 2006.

McCarney was hired as an assistant at South Florida and Florida, winning the 2008 national title with the Gators, before landing the job at North Texas.

Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/football/ncaa/02/13/dan.mccarney.north.texas.ap/index.html#ixzz1mKNhhWAO



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great guy and coach... always thought his teams played hard when he was at ISU. I hope he's ok.

[SeattleLionsFan]

The problem with deregulating at the NCAA level is that some schools (SEC I'm looking at you) won't regulate themselves.

As long as the NCAA recognizes this, I'm fine with it