Here the big rule changes heading into the 2020 college football season.
Make sure you’re aware of the rule changes being made to college football for the 2020 season.
With FBS schools beginning play this weekend, now is the perfect time for you to get acquainted with the rule changes for the upcoming campaign. Some of these rules in place are only temporary, as they will help combat the coronavirus. Other rules are ones that look like they’ll be here to stay for future college seasons. Which rules will leave the longest impact beyond 2020?
These are the rule changes of note for the 2020 college football season.
Initial rule changes
- Jersey numbers: Only two people on the same team can wear the same jersey number. There had been no limit to this. While the No. 0 is now allowed, anything with a 0 in front of it is not (00, 07, etc.)
- Targeting: Though targeting will still enforced as it has been previously, once a player is ejected from a game for targeting, he doesn’t have to leave the field. He can just sit on the sidelines and watch the game with his teammates. With other unsportsmanlike penalties, to the locker room he goes.
- Pregame warmups: Any player who enters the field before the start of the ball game must be accompanied by a coach and must have his jersey on. This is a way to prevent unsportsmanlike penalties between players of opposite teams during pregame warmups.
- Lining up over the long snapper: When an offensive team is clearly in kicking formation, the defense cannot line up a player within a yard of either side of the snapper. The rule of having to wait a second before approaching that vulnerability in the offensive line is still in play, but this new rule is to further help the safety of the offensive specialist.
- Instant replay: There must be three seconds left on the clock for a referee to allow time be put back on the clock at the end of the half, if the question of time was being reviewed. The clock will start on the referees’ whistle. There is also an emphasis to make sure replays don’t last more than two minutes, unless there is a game-deciding play in the final frames, which, in that case, take your time and get it right.
COVID-19 rule changes
- Coaching box: The team area and coaching box will be expanded along both sidelines from the 25-yard lines to the 15-yard lines to allow 70 yards worth of space to make social distancing easier.
- Coin toss: At the coin toss, there will only be four people involved this year: A team captain for both teams, the referee and the umpire, and that’s it. Ceremonial participants, captains, etc. won’t be happening this year.
- Medical mask: A medical mask is allowed, but cannot contain any insignias or emblems of anything other than the team logo. It must be a solid color in coordination with the team’s traditional color scheme.
COVID-19 officiating protocols
- Electronic whistles: Traditional whistles will not be used this year in favor of electronic ones.
- Solid black mask: Officials are to wear a solid black mask and will be required to “mask up” when a snap is imminent. They are to wear these masks at all times, with the exception of congregating to discuss a play that happened while maintaining social distancing.
- Weekly testing: Officials will be tested weekly before each game, adhering to the same guidelines of the conferences they officiate for.
Though there is a lot to digest here, it’s all practical and nothing too complicated to worry about.
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