Wolf
100% Texan
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/footba...ourself-Taunting-eyeblack-ba?urn=ncaaf,234533