The NCAA football rules committee is reportedly considering a rules change that would erase the six points after a touchdown if taunting is involved. Currently, the offending team incurs a 15-yard penalty on the ensuing kickoff. If the rule is changed, the penalty yardage would be marked off from the spot of the foul.

I know, I know, someone is going to comment that won’t be a problem at Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium next season. But that’s being a bit cynical, especially with Victor Anderson returning.

Changing the rule would be a bad idea. Taunting is not a major problem in college football so why even consider such a change? It just doesn’t occur that often, and the current penalty discourages the behavior.

So why would they even consider a change? One would have to suspect the dynamics of a committee are at work here. A group of coaches getting together during the off-season, expected to make some recommendations on improving the rules. They don’t have many ideas but they want to leave their mark. Suddenly one committee member goes off on a tangent, railing about taunting. Yeh, yeh, it’s bad, let’s do something about that.

Football is a rugged game, packed with emotional highs and lows. Taunting is not a good thing but expecting young men at their prime not to show any emotion is unrealistic. Some officials could interpret the act of excited players jumping up and down after a touchdown as excessive celebration. It has happened.

The punishment just doesn’t fit the crime.

If the rules committee wanted to make a difference, they could address the problem of the time-consuming and momentum-killing television timeouts. They would get a lot of support from fans, especially those in the stadium sitting through all of the commercials.

Link:   Taunting on scoring plays might wipe out TD’s

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By Charlie Springer

Charlie Springer is a former Louisville editor and sportswriter, a public affairs consultant, a UofL grad and longtime fan.

4 thoughts on “Deduct Six Points For Taunting?”
  1. Hey, Frank

    I’ve got a few people really interested in the “Hell in the Hall” T-Shirt you gave me. Are you doing anymore of them?

  2. This is what these guys are doing instead of looking at options to can the stupid BCS system? Division I football is the only major collegiate sport without a playoff system.

    Maybe next week these bozos will discuss and study hushing P.A. announcers from getting excited when the home team does something well or eliminate noise makers like train whistles or cannons.

    Incredible…

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