The lowest-hanging fruit to instantly win approval points in any college football discussion in 2016 was to say the targeting rule stunk. A player getting ejected from a game -- and being forced to miss half of the next game, depending on the time of the foul -- was unfair to defensive players with such little evidence needed to throw them out.
Expect that to change in 2017. Sort of.
A report from Jon Solomon of CBSSports on Tuesday stated the NCAA is seeking to move the burden of proof from replay officials to on-the-field officials. Whereas a replay official had to overturn a targeting foul on the field to keep a player from being ejected in 2016, a new interpretation will call for both the on-the-field and replay official to agree on a targeting call to force a player to leave a game.
If the replay official does not find enough evidence to overturn or confirm the call on the field, the player will remain in the game with the 15-yard penalty remaining intact.
“We still want to the official to throw the flag there,” NCAA associate director Ty Halpin told CBS. “But if replay says there’s a little bit of contact on the shoulder and it’s more because the player adjusted and it wasn’t a dangerous attempt by the player delivering the contact, then maybe that player deserves to stay in the game. It’s a reasonable thing to go with.”
Targeting fouls resulted in 144 ejections last season -- including 16 of which that came from replay-initiated reviews, among 29 total replay-initiated reviews -- which was a sharp increase from the 72 ejection in 2014. Fifty-one targeting flags were overturned on replay review.
The proposal will go before review during the NCAA’s Football Rules Committee meetings on March 2-3.