At least on paper, these new rules about the targeting penalty should make a lot of fans happy.
The NCAA rules committee was considering a proposal that would change how the targeting penalty is assessed in replay. Under the new rule, replay officials would have more liberty to overturn or confirm targeting penalties. This liberty would come in the form of being able to review if the contact was incidental, which is something that replay officials were not looking for in previous seasons.
According to the Associated Press, that proposal has been approved.
The change also mentions that replay officials would be able to call targeting penalties that were not called on the field, but that would likely have less of an impact as the first part of the rule change.
Fans will likely see a decrease in targeting penalties confirmed under this proposal. Penalties like this one called against Michigan's Joe Bolden in 2015 would likely be picked up, as the replay official could review whether the contact was incidental instead of just looking for helmet-to-helmet contact or "launching" with the crown of the helmet.
When applied correctly, the targeting rule is one that is in the best interest of player safety. However, when applied incorrectly, it can be costly to a team and a player that did not do anything wrong, as an ejection is an extremely harsh penalty.
Hopefully the NCAA can just get this right and avoid continually upsetting the fans, players, and coaches with this rule.
