On a college football board I frequent-
a poster said that the SEC would like the high
schools in the south to play by NCAA rules as
they do in Texas and Massachusetts.
The rationale is that they won't have to re-teach
blocking techniques and blocking below the knee
would then be legal in high school play.
He said that statistics show there is no more or less
knee injuries in TX and MA than in the states that play
by Federation rules.
I find that hard to believe.
Does anyone here have any knowledge or link
to a site where statistics on those injuries would
be available ??

I have no idea about statistics.

I would like to see more HS ball played with NCAA rules. Of course, I am anti-Fed anyway. I don't get why the Fed feels the need to write their own rule book.

I think that HS has some different concerns than the college game. College coaches make a living just coaching. HS coaches do not. I really would not want to have college rules applied to HS kids that cannot get the FED rules right. There are many more safety issues if you ask me.

Peace

Coaches have a hard enough time figuring out the relatively simple NFHS penalty enforcements.

Could you imagine if we had to explain to them some of the NCAA enforcements? Wowsa.... better you than me.

I can't think of ANY NCAA fouls or enforcements that are MORE confusing than Fed, but maybe that's a matter of perception. Name one for me to think about.

Pass interference. Fouls can't be enforced more than half the distance, correct? Well not if it's pass interference on B. If it's between the 30 and 17, mark it off 15 yards. If it's between the goal and the 17, mark it to the two.

Spot pass interference. 15 yards--except if the pass is fewer than 15 yards.

Kickoff encroachment on K can be enforced to end of run.

I could go on and on and on...

It seems like for every NCAA rule there is an exception in place.

True but the NCAA rule is much clearer to intrepret. I see too many NF posts here and nobody can agree on an intrepretation.

That is not completely true. You have more people here that work under FED rules, so you will have more discussions about FED interpretations.

I belong to a football association that has a heavy college influence. Every presentation has a NF side and a NCAA side. You see a lot of interpretations that the big timers are confused by.

Peace

That's Ok, I read an article that says, since there are more high schools, Jr highs, and youth programs, the coaches of these programs want the SEC to start using FED rules so the players don't have to learn a new system.
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I don't know a single coach that doesn't already understand interference enforcement. It's really pretty simple. DPI is a spot foul, but with a maximum of 15 yards, and you can't penalize past the 2 yard line unless the ball was already on or past the 2.

And I like the possibility of enforcing encroachment on the kicking team by tacking it onto the end of the run. I don't understand at all the assertion that this is confusing or complicated. Just because it's different from FED doesn't make it confusing or complicated. This one's very simple too.

But why is offsides on K any different than offsides on B? I feel that it's weird to enforce offsides on K at the end of the kick return if you're not going to enforce offsides on B at the end of the run as well.

Don't get me wrong, NCAA rules are nice. They serve the purpose of the game they police. When you're dealing with coaches that have nothing to do except coach (and get millions to do so), and with young adults between 19-25, I think NCAA rules could work.

With 15-18 year olds, and with coaches who haven't read a rule book in their life, I don't think it'd work too well.

[Edited by SouthGARef on Sep 24th, 2004 at 04:35 PM]

When these kids are taught the same rules from Pee-Wee up to 12th grade, they normally have a pretty good grasp of the rules, just as I suspect they do in your area.

Then they don't have to relearn a new set of rules when entering college.

Offsides on K is different from offsides on R, because last year under the old rule, there were numerous instances of coaches telling kids to not worry about encroachment ... they would get a nice head start down field and cause a short return. MOST coaches at that level are just happy their returner didn't fumble the return, and decline the penalty.

With the new rule, there is a penalty for that, so coaches don't coach it anymore.

Ok so make everyone play under NFL rules so this way no one has to learn a new set of rules at the next level.

I don't think I'd be opposed to that, with a few safety rules added in. Would you?