Thursday was supposed to be the day the 10-second substitution rule proposal was to be put to rest. Now it appears the inevitable will be delayed.
Brett McMurphy of ESPN.com reports (via Twitter) the NCAA’s Football Rules Oversight committee will table the vote on the controversial 10-second defensive substitution rule for a later time. That time has yet to be determined or reported.
Because the vote is being tabled for a later time, there will be no way to implement the rule for the 2014 season even if it did have enough votes to pass. Most seem to believe the votes will not be there anyway, but now that the proposal is being tabled there may be additional time to properly and fully investigate both sides of the proposal. Alabama head coach Nick Saban recently said there needs to be more information obtained related to the impact on player safety with the spread of up-tempo offenses in college football. The lack of data to support the rule change has been one of the popular rallying cries for coaches and administrators (and fans and media) opposing the rule proposal as well.
The Football Rules Oversight committee will move forward with the other proposal on the agenda. It is expected a proposal to revise the targeting rules will be approved. The proposal on the table would wipe off a 15-yard penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct if a video review determines a player penalized and ejected for targeting should not have been called. As it stands now, even if a player is ruled eligible to return to the game, the 15-yard penalty is not taken off the field.