NCAA football panel offers rules changes

The NCAA football rules committee announced several proposed changes Friday, including giving replay officials more leeway to overturn targeting penalties and requiring games reaching a fifth overtime to be decided by alternating 2-point conversion tries.

The committee met in Indianapolis last week, and the proposed changes also include tweaks to kickoff and blindside block rules. The proposals must be approved by the football oversight committee in April. They would go into effect next season.

Two changes to targeting were proposed.

The first would allow replay officials to examine all aspects of the play and confirm the foul when all elements of targeting are present. If targeting cannot be confirmed, the call would be overturned, eliminating the option for the call on the field to stand. Targeting would still result in a 15-yard penalty and ejection of the player who committed the foul. Players ejected in the second half would still be required to sit out the first half of the following game.

Under the second proposal, players who receive a second targeting foul during the season would be suspended for the entire next game, not just the first half.

The overtime rule change was proposed after LSU and Texas A&M matched a record by playing seven overtimes in their regular-season finale last year. On average, 37 Bowl Subdivision games have gone to overtime over the past four seasons.