(Do not) Express yourself: NCAA bans taunting, eyeblack

[Wolf]

Regular readers will recall that in February the NCAA Rules Committee recommended approving a new rule that would strip touchdowns for taunting penalties, along with a ban on personalized eyeblack messages — area-code shout outs, Bible verses, etc. — that threaten innocent American consumers with genuine individual expression during their carefully crafted weekend broadcasts. Wednesday, the Playing Rules Oversight Panel (PROP) made both rules official (emphasis added):

The change means, for example, that if a player makes a taunting gesture to an opponent on the way to scoring a touchdown, the flag would nullify the score and penalize the offending team from the spot of the foul.

Penalties for dead-ball misconduct fouls (for example, unsportsmanlike behavior after the player crosses the goal line) would continue to be assessed on the ensuing kickoff or the extra point/two point conversion attempt.

In another action that affects the coming season, PROP confirmed that players are not allowed to have any symbols or messages on their eye black starting in the 2010 season.

The anti-taunting rule won't take effect until 2011, which gives us a full season to count the ways it will ruin the game then. I'm not an apologist for excessive celebration (though it certainly can be fun in retrospect), but the most persistent issue with the NCAA's increased enforcement of "sportsmanship" over the last few years is that officials are so bad at applying it. It's insulting enough that the "crackdown" on taunting has already led to the kind of lame, overbearing interpretations like this one against Washington's Jake Locker in 2008 and this one against Georgia's A.J. Green last October, both of which played major roles in their teams' respective defeats in those games even without negating the late touchdowns that triggered the celebrations. Any rule that increases the opportunity for any official to directly, subjectively affect the outcome by striking points from the board is destined for catastrophe.

Imagine, for example, if a trigger-happy ref had had the option of overturning, say, Quan Cosby's game-winning touchdown for Texas in the closing seconds of the 2009 Fiesta Bowl:

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/footbal...n=ncaaf,234533

[Spled]

Sooner or later an important game will be screwed up by one of those penalties.

[pbat488]

Originally Posted by Spled

Sooner or later an important game will be screwed up by one of those penalties.

Yep, this is my thought as well. And when it does.... ooooooh doggie...

[eriadoc]

Humans can't help but slaughter the goose that lays the golden eggs. Morons.

[brakos82]

NCAA!

[OzzO]

But will the players still get orange slices and capri suns after the game?

Taunting? Seriously? The objective is to march down the field and score. However, when you reach your objective, we don't want you to celebrate it... cause that'll just upset the other team.

[BigBull17]

Originally Posted by OzzO

But will the players still get orange slices and capri suns after the game?

Taunting? Seriously? The objective is to march down the field and score. However, when you reach your objective, we don't want you to celebrate it... cause that'll just upset the other team.

Celebrating is one thing, I hate when people high step from the 50 or run backwards pointing. It's stupid.

[Wolf]

I am curious is where is the line going to be drawn ?

for example(from the video link) Cosby.. say he dives into the endzone (like he did) closing seconds and was the game winner.. but what happens if UT was up by 20 in the 4th quarter with 2 minutes left.. call a penalty then? because the score is out of hand?

[Dutchrudder]

I like the eyeblack ban because those messages were just silly, but the taunting rule sounds waaaaaaaaaay too broad.