With college football heading into a Saturday full of marquee games, it remains to be seen how officials will react to new clarifications regarding this season’s targeting rules.
The interpretations were issued by the NCAA on Friday afternoon following a week-long debate that, in large part, focused on a play from the recent Stanford-UCLA game.
The NCAA’s football rules committee said it wants to be sure officials across the country understand what constitutes forcible contact with the “crown” of the helmet.
“It seems that some officials have been interpreting the crown of the helmet to mean the tip-top portion of the helmet only,” said Rogers Redding, the association’s football secretary-rules editor.