Why NCAA backed off college football targeting’s harshest punishment

The NCAA’s latest spate of college football guidelines adjustments have ranged from mundane (a proposal to pressure leg coverings failed), controversial to downright spooky (“ghost transfers”).

Perhaps of most noteworthy this fall is a one-year trial run with changes to the sport’s targeting penalties.

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Passed March 19 by the NCAA’s Division I Football Bowls Subdivision Oversight Committee, an initial targeting penalty in the coming 2026 season does not require a player to miss time in his team’s subsequent game.

The previous iteration of the targeting rule required a player who was ejected for the foul in the second half of a contest to miss the first half of his team’s following game; it even could carry over from one season to the next year.

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Indiana Hoosiers claim first national football title over Miami

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Indiana Hoosiers claim first national football title over Miami

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Indiana Hoosiers claim first national football title over Miami

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Indiana Hoosiers claim first national football title over Miami

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Indiana Hoosiers claim first national football title over Miami

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Indiana Hoosiers claim first national football title over Miami

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Indiana Hoosiers claim first national football title over Miami

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Indiana Hoosiers claim first national football title over Miami

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Indiana Hoosiers claim first national football title over Miami

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Indiana Hoosiers claim first national football title over Miami

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Indiana Hoosiers claim first national football title over Miami

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Indiana Hoosiers claim first national football title over Miami

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Indiana Hoosiers claim first national football title over Miami

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Indiana Hoosiers claim first national football title over Miami

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Indiana Hoosiers claim first national football title over Miami

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Indiana Hoosiers claim first national football title over Miami

However, NCAA officials and representatives from member schools studied changes to the game from previous modifications to the rule and learned no player during the 2025 season was flagged for three targeting penalties.

Overall, the NCAA said, the penalty also has declined in frequency

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“I believe the discussion had been for a while the severity of this penalty, and we think the rule has demonstrated (the game) has really responded,” Greg Burks, Big 12’s Coordinator of Officials, instructed USA TODAY Sports. “The number of targeting penalties has gone down. The plays we saw, the head-hunting we saw in the past, you just don’t see anymore.

“The safety factor was driving the rule and was the impetus and that kind of has come to fruition.”

The NCAA’s nationwide coordinator of officers, longtime SEC referee and officiating head Steve Shaw, shared with the group the outcomes of the research that confirmed “only a very few” gamers obtained a number of concentrating on penalties through the 2025 season.

The Big 12, Burks famous, didn’t have a single participant whistled twice for the foul.

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If the trend-line reverses course with these guidelines modifications and extra gamers change into multi-time offenders, obligatory suspension stays within the rulebook. A participant can be required to take a seat out the primary half of the group’s subsequent recreation, no matter when the penalty occurred.

“Part of this rule is if we do have a second occurrence, the original penalty comes into effect,” Burks mentioned. “A third requires sitting out a full game.

“The most severe penalty in sports is not being able to participate.”

As the Big 12 seeks to additional improve its football officiating, the league is drilling down on its first-of-its-kind partnership with the NFL. The NFL for the primary time invited Big 12 reps to take a seat in on the NFL’s competitors and guidelines conferences through the annual NFL Combine held earlier this yr in Indianapolis.

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“They have put a lot of resources into their officiating program, how they make their rules is really important,” Big 12 Chief Football and Competition Office Scott Draper instructed USA TODAY Sports. “That’s something I’m focused on for college football.

“They spend a lot of time vetting rules changes so that when they get to the final stage, they’ve already gone through a lot of the necessary conversations. That’s one aspect that globally for college football I want us to learn from.”

With the NFL partnership, an excellent state of affairs for the convention, in keeping with Draper, can be to raise officers’ performances to a stage it could be troublesome to retain them.

“The accountability, training, recruitment measures, collectively working together with the NFL in the Big 12 to really address, not just Big 12 officiating staff,” mentioned Draper, a former Michigan director of football operations and athletic administrator. “But recruiting younger and replacement officials going forward, the goal is to build a pipeline for young officials to get into college officiating and maybe be a pipeline to the NFL.

“This is a long-term process, something we’re viewing for more than one year.”

This article initially appeared on USA TODAY: College football again changes targeting rule: How punishment changes