Skip to main content

Gary Daneilson's new idea for overtime in college

I heard this the other day while watching a bowl game. Announcer Gary Danielson said he's not thrilled about the overtime rules in college football. His partner (not in every way, I don't believe) suggested they move the line back to the 35-yard line from where it stands now at the 25. Danielson said something along the lines of, "Why don't we just not allow field goals? Force the teams to score touchdowns."

On one side of the coin, I think I'd actually enjoy watching overtimes more if the rules were changed to his. I get a little tired of teams playing it ultra-conservative in overtime and setting themselves up for a field goal. However, in the end, I think the suggested rule change is pretty stupid. Special teams is an integral part of the game of football. If you don't believe me, just watch the replay of the Florida/Ohio State game yesterday. Florida blocked a punt and ran it back for 6 and also returned a kickoff for a touchdown. Their special teams (including extra points) were responsible for 18 of their 24 points. Without their special teams, they would have lost to the Buckeyes. So, why eliminate one of the three major components to the game of football? That makes absolutely no sense to me. What, in college basketball, should we eliminate free throws in overtime? In baseball, should we eliminate intentional walks in extra innings? I say the only reasonable rule change would be to move the starting line-of-scrimmage back some. I say double it and start from midfield. This will force teams to convert at least two first downs in order to get into reasonable field goal range. It won't allow teams who only need a field goal to win to just run the ball up the middle, center it with a quarterback sneak and then attempt a 37- to 42-yard field goal. I appreciate Danielson's thinking outside-the-box, because I too agree that we need to change the overtime rules somewhat. However, I honestly don't believe it's a good idea to eliminate special teams from overtime. Just like offense and/or defense, special teams can make the ultimate difference between a win and a loss and it'd be rather silly to strip that component from the game when deciding it in overtime.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Boycotting jukeboxes because of TouchTunes

I love music and enjoy hitting the bar(s) over the weekend, so naturally, when the mood strikes me, I've never been coy about playing some songs on the jukebox. This past Thursday, a friend of mine turned 50, so several friends of her's, including myself, all met up to celebrate the occasion. At around 9:30, a friend of mine and I both chipped in $5 to play some songs on the jukebox. Four hours and 231 skips later, we gave up on hearing the songs we had selected, and went home knowing we had just wasted $5. This wasn't the first time such a thing had happened to me (and many others), and due to that, I'll be boycotting jukeboxes. Why? The scam known as TouchTunes. You see, here's how the plot typically breaks down. A person (or group of people) downloads the TouchTunes app on his/her phone, consumes one too many adult beverages, and due to this, has less care for spending extra money to hear the songs of their choosing right NOW. That's the thing with TouchTun...

Face guarding is legal in college football and the NFL

I just wanted to remind fans and announcers especially, that face guarding is legal in both college football and the NFL. It all comes down to contact. So long as a defender doesn't make contact with an intended receiver, he doesn't have to turn around to play the ball. I can't tell you how many times every week I hear announcers talk about face guarding being a penalty. It's not. I even heard one announcer yesterday state, "If the defender doesn't turn around and play the ball, the ref will call pass interference every time." That's simply not true. Courtesy of referee Bill LeMonnier, he says this with regard to the rule at the college level (answered on 8/12/13): "NCAA rules on pass interference require the face guarding to have contact to be a foul. No contact, no foul by NCAA rules." In the NFL rule book, this is written:  "Actions that constitute defensive pass interference include but are not limited to: (a) Contact by a ...