A quiet rule change becomes college football’s loudest special teams fight

The rule change to punt formations was merely a footnote. Now, it’s a controversy. After the NCAA ’s Division I Football Bowl Subdivision Oversight Committee on March 19 adopted what the special teams community has called a “drastic rule change,” the measure that restricts player movement for “two adjacent linemen on either side of the snapper” faces the potential to be rescinded.

Coaches familiar with the situation told USA TODAY Sports that Steve Shaw, the NCAA’s national coordinator of officials, recently held a Zoom meeting for FBS special teams coordinators that featured more than 50 coaches. OPINION: Pat Fitzgerald was vilified, then vindicated. His truth comes out at last EXCLUSIVE: DJ Lagway felt isolated at Florida.

He's rewriting his story at Baylor “We didn’t have a chance for answers,” a current Power conference special teams coordinator from a College Football Playoff participant told USA TODAY Sports. “Some people basically were already done with spring football when this was passed. “I can’t do it or teach it in the summer, because that’s cheating and then I’d get fired.

” The debate has bubbled to such a boil, people familiar with the adopted rule change told USA TODAY Sports, the NCAA’s subcommittee headed by Shaw was expected to meet again late this week. Additionally, an unofficial survey conducted by NCAA Division I coaches, with responses from special teams coordinators and head coaches with results provided to USA TODAY Sports, showed a 61-1 vote of coaches who opposed the new rule. In a wide-ranging interview with USA TODAY Sports last month, Big 12 officiating head Greg Burks elaborated on the punt-coverage rule change.