Rules Changes 101

At the Ivy League media day in New Haven a few new rules for 2006 were discussed by Jim Maconaghy, coordinator of officials for both the Ivy League and the Patriot League. Among the rules:

• Eye shields on helmets will have to be clear this year. There will be no more "smoke" colored or yellow shields. According to Maconaghy that is so the trainers can more easily see the eyes of players who might have suffered a concussion.
• The kickoff tee has been reduced from 2 inches to 1 inch to encourage more runbacks of kickoffs.
• Halftime can be reduced to 15 minutes with prior approval of both teams but will likely still stay 20 minutes in most cases.
• The clock will start when the ball is kicked off rather than when it is touched by a returner.
• On change of possessions, the clock will start when the teams are ready for play instead of at the snap.
• Officials will no longer stop play when crowd noise makes hearing impossible. Not surprisingly, it was found that only encouraged the crowd when play was resumed.
• On 5-yard penalties in a punting situation, the receiving team can force a rekick from 5 yards back or have the penalty assessed at the end of the return, similar to a kickoff.
• The rule was rescinded where a quarterback, once outside the tackles, is called for intentional grounding when he returns inside the tackles and throws the ball away. Officials had struggled determining where the original "tackle" line was.
• The extra point when time expires at the end of the game does not have to be tried unless it affects the outcome of the game.

The only rule that had the Ivy coaches wondering was the starting of the clock when the teams are ready to go after a possession change. Said Cornell coach Jim Knowles, chair of the coaches' committee: "It will certainly affect strategy. It will take plays away from the game."

Said Dartmouth coach Buddy Teevens of the rule, one of several intended to speed the game up for television: "I'm not really surprised. You could see it coming through the years. I think strategically there will be nuances that, until you go through it, you don't think about it. So we'll have to work our way through it. It will accelerate the game. It will accelerate the pace of the game at bit. But we've always been fairly rapid getting into and out of the huddle. The biggest thing is probably it is going to reduce the number of snaps in the game for both teams."

To see what "the big guys" think about the time-saving rules changes, click here.

The Ivy League football coaches were filmed outside of the Yale Golf Course clubhouse talking about who might be the best golfer in their group, and giving "shout outs." There's some funny stuff in this video, with Columbia coach Norries Wilson in particular getting off a few good cracks. For the record, it was unanimous that Penn's Al Bagnoli has the best golf game. As for the "shout outs," a handful of the coaches didn't know what they were. Taking advantage of any chance he has, Teevens gave his "shout out" to President Wright for his commitment to football and athletics.

The Harvard Crimson touches on the suspension of quarterback Liam O'Hagan for five games in this story. It quotes Harvard coach Tim Murphy: “It’s not a legal issue, it’s not a public issue, so in that case it’s a private team matter.”