NCAA football panel proposes changes to targeting ejections - ESPN

INDIANAPOLIS — Division I football rules makers have proposed a one-year trial rule allowing a player disqualified for targeting for the first time to play in his team's next game regardless of which half the penalty was assessed, the NCAA announced Thursday.

Currently, players disqualified for targeting must miss the rest of the game and, if the penalty occurs in the second half, sit out the first half of the next game.

Under the Division I Football Rules Subcommittee's proposal, a player disqualified for targeting a second time during the season would miss the first half of the next game. A third targeting ejection in the same season would cause the offending player to miss the entire next game.

Targeting is forcible contact with an opponent's head or neck area where the offending player often uses the crown of his helmet to make contact or launches his body into the opposing player above the shoulders.

Oversight committees for the Bowl Subdivision and Championship Subdivision must approve proposals before they become official. Those committees meet next month.

«This continues the evolution of our targeting rule and balances the important safety impact with an appropriate penalty structure,» said A.J. Edds, rules subcommittee chair and vice president of football administration for the Big Ten. «We will closely monitor this one-year adjustment, and the committee believes it is important to enhance the progressive penalty to ensure proper coaching and player education.»

Dress code:

The rules subcommittee proposed that players wear leg coverings from the top of their shoes to the bottom of their pants. Players would have to wear the same covering style and colors for that particular game.

Players out of compliance with