INDIANAPOLIS — NCAA Division I football rules makers have proposed a one-year trial rule allowing a player disqualified for targeting for the first time to play in his team’s next game regardless of which half the penalty was assessed, the association announced Thursday.
Currently, players disqualified for targeting must miss the rest of the game, and if the penalty occurs in the second half, they must also sit out the first half of the next game.
Under the Division I Football Rules Subcommittee’s proposal, a player disqualified for targeting a second time during the season would miss the first half of the next game. A third targeting ejection in the same season would cause the offending player to miss the entire next game.
Targeting is forcible contact with an opponent’s head or neck area where the offending player often uses the crown of his helmet to make contact or launches his body into the opposing player above the shoulders.
Oversight committees for the Football Bowl Subdivision and the Football Championship Subdivision must approve proposals before they become official. Those committees meet next month.