Moving The Kickoff Back To The 30

[Harry]

Obviously this is going to make football games more exciting. But in the end will it benefit the BCS schools that have such a continuous wealth of athletes on special teams?

[meangreenfreak]

I Dunno.

It does give the offense a shorter field to get to the end zone. Even if they dont have great special teams.

Edited August 14, 2007 by meangreenfreak

[NT80]

Obviously this is going to make football games more exciting. But in the end will it benefit the BCS schools that have such a continuous wealth of athletes on special teams?

I think it gives the non-BCS schools a better chance of returning kicks. It puts the kickoff team 5 yards further back and those big-leg kickers can't drive it out the back of the endzone as easy now on every kickoff.

[meangreenfreak]

I think it gives the non-BCS schools a better chance of returning kicks. It puts the kickoff team 5 yards further back and those big-leg kickers can't drive it out the back of the endzone as easy now on every kickoff.

Do you think that the NCAA did this to put an emphasis on special teams?

[greenminer]

I think they did it because there are too many touchbacks. This'll benefit non-BCSers

[SCREAMING EAGLE-66]

-- I think it will result in teams having two kickers ... a guy with a cannon for leg to do kickoffs and another who is more accurate to do the extra-points and field goals. I will also result in teams recruiting people to do kickoffs (the Dante-Hall types) and not just being an every play player. I don't see this benefiting anyone especially.. just make kickoffs more interesting instead of just starting the game at the 20. Teams will have to devote more time to coaching the kicking team on how to stop the return people plus it may change who is on the field because this will now become a larger part of the game.

---The biggest change will be the amount of time coaches will spend working with kicking teams.

Edited August 14, 2007 by SCREAMING EAGLE-66

[StrapJr]

I think they did it because there are too many touchbacks. This'll benefit non-BCSers

I agree. The NCAA has reverted back to the old clock rules, and this will help to eat up some time off the clock that the NCAA has for some reason been desperate to burn off.

[trud1966]

I think they did it because there are too many touchbacks. This'll benefit non-BCSers

Agreed. To me, it's almost someone evolutional. Athetes are getting stronger and bigger every 10 years, and the percentage of touchbacks has increased tremendously. You cant change human progress and records were meant to be broken. The only think left is to change the field. I always wonder WAY back in the far corner of my mind, if, someday (and I'd HATE this) the playing field will be changed to like Canadian Football Fields, with an extra 10 yards. May never happen, or not in our lifetime, but I could see it eventually.

[jperg2]

Agreed. To me, it's almost someone evolutional. Athetes are getting stronger and bigger every 10 years, and the percentage of touchbacks has increased tremendously. You cant change human progress and records were meant to be broken. The only think left is to change the field. I always wonder WAY back in the far corner of my mind, if, someday (and I'd HATE this) the playing field will be changed to like Canadian Football Fields, with an extra 10 yards. May never happen, or not in our lifetime, but I could see it eventually.

I would think the NCAA would cnosider the kickoffs be moved even farther back (say the 20/15 yard lines) before this is instituted.

[greenminer]

I would think the NCAA would cnosider the kickoffs be moved even farther back (say the 20/15 yard lines) before this is instituted.

Kicking off from the 15? not likely. Not until we're booming 70+ yard punts regularly.

[Arkstfan]

Who will it benefit?

It will benefit the school that can get the fastest tacklers down the field.

It will benefit the school that can get the best return guys behind the best blockers

It will benefit the school best able to recruit guys who can kick to the end zone with the most hang time.

[LongJim]

It will benefit the school that can get the fastest tacklers down the field.

It will benefit the school that can get the best return guys behind the best blockers

That's pretty much it in a nutshell. It will benefit teams that already have excellent speed, and those that can consistently recruit excellent speed.

[meangreenfreak]

That's pretty much it in a nutshell. It will benefit teams that already have excellent speed, and those that can consistently recruit excellent speed.

I thought speed was illeagle. I think the NCAA has rules against using speed to your advantage.

Yep, I'm pretty sure they test for speed.

[NTPhiKap99]

I thought speed was illeagle. I think the NCAA has rules against using speed to your advantage.

Yep, I'm pretty sure they test for speed.

Yes but like most thing speed is only illegal if you get caught.

[meangreenfreak]

Yes but like most thing speed is only illegal if you get caught.

Great point.

[UNTSIG]

i think that this the biggest rule change to come along in college football in years! instead of the average starting position being around the 20, teams will now be starting closer to 30 yard line. you are going to see a lot higher scoring games this year. it will also change up the way that coaches call plays. there is a difference in play calling when you are starting at your own 20 as opposed to the 35. you are not concerned with the punter backing up to within a few yards of the goalline...

who does it benefit? it all depends. i don't think that it benefits anyone. you can say that it will benefit the BCS because they have better athletes BUT teams with less talent are going to have better starting position which means that when we punt, we will pin them back further. although there starting position when we kick off is going to be better than it was...

[NTPhiKap99]

i think that this the biggest rule change to come along in college football in years!

I do agree it is a pretty big change but I'd say the running clock rule from last year was a much bigger change.

[El Paso Eagle]

Let’s see if the kick off goes out of bounds you get the ball at the 35, correct? I wonder if more schools will use this as a strategy?

In addition, I wonder if this will have more schools recruiting kickers instead of counting on walk-ons?

[SCREAMING EAGLE-66]

---The guys who can kickoff a long way but can't get it between the posts suddenly have some value. They will kick off but will not do field goals and extra points.

[Guest GrayEagleOne]

I think that it may be a slight advantage to the top teams because they have more speed. That has been a major difference between the haves and the have-nots. The top teams have more speed on the kick coverage teams. I think that the majors and mid-majors have fairly equal talent when it comes to kickoffs.

It will make the game much more exciting because touchbacks were becoming commonplace, Special teams and especially return specialists will become much more valuable and it would not surprise me to see some recruited for their special teams talent alone.

[Arkstfan]

Let’s see if the kick off goes out of bounds you get the ball at the 35, correct? I wonder if more schools will use this as a strategy?

In addition, I wonder if this will have more schools recruiting kickers instead of counting on walk-ons?

Under the new rule it goes to the 40.

[UNTFan23]

Under the new rule it goes to the 40.

I've never been a real fan of this penalty. If the ball goes out of bounds at the 39 ... no real harm, but if it goes out of bounds at the 1 ... it's a 39 yd penalty. I'd rather have it 15 yds or on the 40, whichever is smaller.

Here's some food for thought: If the point of this penalty is to keep the ball in play during a kickoff, why isn't there a penalty on a punt to keep the ball in play? Kicking the ball out of bounds in both cases serves the exact same thing: preventing the other team from returning the ball.

The strategist in me has this to offer as well: with the ball getting moved back 5 yards ... I have to wonder if you might see more squib kicks. If you think about it, the receiving team will have more field to protect. Why knock the snot out of it to have the speediest guy field it and pop off a good return when you might be able to have a slower person (who might not have the best hands) field the ball and maybe force a fumble or eliminate a return altogether since the player gets tackled almost immediately at roughly the same place the returner might have been tackled anyway? Remember, the ball is live after 10 yards. This is a gamble I hope our special teams coach consider.

[Texas Stranger]

On a kickoff that goes out of bounds without being touched, the receving team has 3 (that's right, 3) choices:

1. Take the ball 30 yards from the spot of the kick (which will be at their own 40 if kicked from the other 30)

2. Take the ball at the spot it went out of bounds (useful if an onside kick goes out of bounds untouched)

3. Make 'em kick it again from 5 yards further back. You might see this happen if the kicker hasn't been kicking off very well.

The biggest impact of this rule will probably be less trick-kicks. The only onside kicks will likely be obvious ones.

[Arkstfan]

If they had really wanted to increase scoring and increase run backs they would have left the kickoff at the 35 and adopted a Canadian style rule that any punt or kickoff that is caught in the end zone or strikes the ground in the end zone scores one point for the kicking team if it isn't returned out of the end zone and the receiving team gets the ball on the 30 or 35. You would rarely see the single point awarded but you'd see a lot more returns.