6 ways to improve CFB (link) Agree with any of these?

Jun 5, 2015, 12:08 PM

Six simple ways to fix and improve college football games

By Adam Silverstein | CBSSports.com Staff
June 5, 2015 10:30 am ET

The 2015 season is still months away, but we here at CBSSports.com never stop thinking about college football and how the game itself can be improved with just a few tweaks.

The question posed was simple: "What rule change or improvement would make college football better?" The only requirement was for each explanation to be 250 words or less.

With that being said, let's take a look how our CBSSports.com writers would improve college football's on-field product.

Dennis Dodd, senior college football columnist: Let's get rid of the kickoff

It took a tragedy for Greg Schiano to see the light. In 2010, Eric LeGrand was covering a kickoff for Rutgers against Army. LeGrand plowed violently into returner Malcolm Brown. He -- and college football -- were never the same. LeGrand has been paralyzed from the neck down to some degree since then. Schiano, his coach at the time, then later advocated an elimination of the kickoff. Schiano proposed that after touchdowns and field goals, the scoring team would retain possession at fourth-and-15 on its own 30. The offense could then choose to go for it or punt. The punt essentially would replace the kickoff. Later, when Schiano was in the NFL with Tampa commissioner Roger Goodell didn't exactly dismiss the idea.

Yeah, it sounds off-the-wall and crazy. But in this age of player safety it makes perfect sense. The source of most injuries in football comes from kickoffs. How much excitement do we really get from them? There were 1,226 kickoffs last season in the NFL. Six of them were returned for touchdowns. That's a success rate of 0.4 percent. At the highest level of college football, the number is slightly higher at 0.6 percent. Bored yet? This is the future of not only NFL and college football, all of organized football. It's going to happen. Check insurance rates for youth football. All you have to do is Google “head trauma”. Such a rule would reduce injuries. And we'd all be massively more entertained.

Jon Solomon, national college football writer: It's time to use a running clock

If college football truly wants to reduce the number of plays in a game for safety and/or TV purposes, there's a very simple solution: Use a running clock after first downs, like the NFL. The concept, which is being studied within college football circles, would reduce game times and plays. Yes, stopping the clock after first downs enables for more comebacks and wild, high-scoring games that make college football unique; managing the chance for a comeback would be viewed differently. Fifteen FBS teams averaged at least 3 minutes, 30 seconds in game length during 2014; no teams hit that mark in 2009. Television windows are going to get impacted as the number of plays continues to increase.

Tempo -- or the threat of it -- is here to stay given how many coaches use it. A running clock could be a healthy compromise between up-tempo and pro-style. Up-tempo coaches could still snap the ball quickly; pro-style coaches could benefit with fewer overall plays. Most importantly, unpaid "amateur" players, who can't collectively bargain for their rights, could see less wear and tear on their bodies. College football always adds games and never takes them away. Teams are playing a couple hundred more plays than they did 5-10 years ago. “I don't think there would be a whole lot of opposition from coaches,” said Arizona's Rich Rodriguez, an up-tempo coach. Fans may not like it, but it's the easiest solution to put some limits on the ever-increasing number of plays.

Tom Fornelli, college football writer: Hey, extra points -- see ya later

The extra point is not nearly as automatic in college football as it is in the NFL, but it's still a boring play. Of the 128 FBS teams in 2014, only seven failed to convert them at least 90 percent of the time. Before the NFL adopted the two-point conversion, one of the fun differences between the NFL and college football was that you could go for two in college.

Well, let's make it the only option. If you score a touchdown, you have to go for two. It will save us all from the boredom of watching a team line up for the extra point and will instead give us another fun play to watch. The more exciting moments there are during the four hours we're watching these games, the better.

Jerry Hinnen, college football writer: Why is a ball fumbled forward into the end zone a touchback?

I'll keep this brief: I don't care about the arcane positives of the existing rule -- to try and prevent intentional fumbles into the end zone, I guess? Because that happens all the time -- when it creates the very real negative of a game being decided like this. Does anyone's football-loving gut feel satisfied watching these kinds of plays in the dying minutes of a tight contest (plays which seem to happen at least two or three times a season)?

At some point, the rules have to match the spirit of the game, and it's hard to think of anything much more anti-spirit than punishing a player giving his all for the end zone by summarily handing his team a loss without the defense even touching the ball. If the defense wants the ball, hey, fine, it can recover it in bounds. Otherwise, the ball should be returned to the spot of the fumble or if inside the 2-yard line, the 2-yard line.

Chip Patterson, college football writer: Allow helmet communication (like the NFL)

I love wacky play cards as much as the next guy, but why can college football not adopt helmet communication systems, the same ones used in the NFL, on both sides of the ball? On defense, as Pitt's Pat Narduzzi pointed out in May, it would keep the unit from having to tip its hand to the offense. Teams can, and do, quickly crack the code of hand signals throughout the course of a game, but headset communication to the middle linebacker (or another defensive captain) would allow the defense to benefit from some of the same misdirection that offenses have enjoyed with the rise of packaged offensive concepts.

But this is not just a "who has the chalk last" discussion. It is 2015 and the technology is available to improve communication on both sides of the ball. NCAA football rules committee chairman Troy Calhoun says the group will consider its implementation and I hope in 2016 we will see that little green dot on the back of the helmets on Saturdays.

Adam Silverstein, college football editor: Pylon and sideline cameras should be mandatory

It's 2015. We have cameras on our computers, tablets, phones and watches. There are high definition cameras all over a football field, including in the sky hovering in the backfield. Yet for some reason, despite their use being met with favorable reviews (including at the 2015 College Football Playoff National Championship), there has been no movement on making pylon cameras a regular part of a game setup. This is not for the fans, though they benefit, too. Pylon cameras will help officials review plays and make determinations on important things like, you know, whether a touchdown is a touchdown.

And sideline cameras, do I have to make an argument? Imagine being able to tell more definitively whether a first down is a first down or a defender running back an interception actually crossed the white line seven yards out. (The pylon cameras, by the way, can help with this mission vertically down the field, especially close to the end zone.) Let's stop guessing and make some of these instant replay decisions more obvious. Because as things stand now, there is too much room for error in a game so important to many.

flag link

military_tech

thumb_down

thumb_up

Best Is The Standard

1) Remove Kickoff
No thanks. BTW, using the ".6%" metric (touchdowns) as success totally disregards the fact that the play is a critical component of field position battles. Starting at the 10 vs the 40 is a huge difference.

2) Running Clock
No thanks. I simply don't understand the desire to shorten games. In fact, I'd like to adopt the AFL rule that to run the clock in the last 2 minutes you have to get the ball past the line of scrimmage.

3) Remove XP
I'm all for some creative ways of changing this up, but the idea that we should make the kicker LESS important seems to do away with the whole idea of it being FOOTball. The kicking game is part of the game, and I want no part of removing that from play.

4) Fumble into endzone.
OK, I can see his reasoning. But I like the rule for a single reason it should serve as a deterrent for ball carriers trying to basically throwing the ball over the goal line while trying to stretch. But, I can see the rule change being brought into line with fumbles in other parts of the field. I think I'd add one pudendum just for fun, and that would be that the ball belongs to the team who last touched it if it goes out of the endzone on a fumble. But honestly, this is a rule which doesn't really come into play much at all.

5) Helmet communication
No problem with this

6) Sideline and Pylon cameras
Nice idea, but the cost of doing this in many of the smaller stadiums may be prohibitive.

6 ways to improve CFB (link) Agree with any of these?

Re: 6 ways to improve CFB (link) Agree with any of these?

Yep, im with you on that. The only 1 i like is the touchback

Of course he does. He's trying to get paid.***

It is indeed a stupid idea***

My take(s)

No to the running clock!! That would make CFB much less

6 team playoff....must be a power 5 conference champ

I'd go to 8

I like the last 3***

I'd rather see these...

Re: I'd rather see these...

Roughing the kicker on a punt is an absolute necessity

Re: 6 ways to improve CFB (link) Agree with any of these?

2000 SCar game - I just watched the end on YouTube

Because they recovered and not us. the worst recent example

If it was fumbled out of the endzone it would've been

Re: 6 ways to improve CFB (link) Agree with any of these?

Re: 6 ways to improve CFB (link) Agree with any of these?

TigerBoard POTD