It’s often said the NFL is the ‘no fun league’ for clamping down on players’ ability to celebrate touchdowns or show any individuality when it comes to their uniform choices but it seems the NCAA is going down the same path.
Several Twitter accounts belonging to various FBS equipment staffs have been sharing a graphic from the NCAA that notes a few changes as to what’s allowed and what’s not as far as the uniform goes. Via Middle Tennessee’s equipment staff, here’s the image:
NCAA Uniform and Equipment Rules. #Equipped pic.twitter.com/y6H42UvhzP
— MT Equipment (@MTSU_Equipment) April 30, 2018
As you can see, there are three major rules being put in place that will presumably be enforced quite strictly this fall. The most visible of the new guidelines appears to be that the jersey top must cover a player’s waist completely with no back plate or t-shirt being visible. While those two probably won’t draw much ire from anybody when suiting up, the requirement that knee pads go below the, well, actual knee is going to be a big issue for some who have been sporting the smaller pads in recent years. Obviously that is much more of a player safety issue than the other two requirements.
The NCAA has not formally released any new guidelines but chances are you’ll be hearing about these new rules over the coming months and on through conference media days where officials typically discuss how new rules will be enforced.