Learn Your Stripes Podcast
Learn Your Stripes Podcast
Episode 35: 2024 High School and College Rule Changes
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This week, Michael and Ryan (and George) discuss the high school and college rule changes for 2024.
Listening note: Podcast mascot George (pictured) was so excited about this episode that his panting is audible in a few places; he sends his apologies.
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Welcome back to Learn your Stripes .
Speaker 2I'm Ryan Guillory and I'm Michael Moran , and we'll start tonight with a result of our play from our previous episode , episode 34 . So , to recap A4-7 at the A30 . Punter A15 kicks the ball towards B1 . B1 signals for a fair catch excuse me Misjudges the punt and lets it go over his head . B1 then proceeds to block A1 at the B20 , preventing A1 from downing the football . The ball bounces out of bounds at the B6 .
Speaker 2And again , as usual , we ask for your ruling in high school and college . And in this case , who will be next to put the ball in play ? Now , overlooking the fact that we have a punter who , from the A30 , kicked it all the way down to the B6 , that would be an instant scholarship or a draft pick right there , overlooking that in high school , this is a foul that falls under PSK provisions . It does carry a 15-yard penalty , but in this case our PSK spot is the B6 . That's where the kick ended , where it went out of bounds . So we'll go half the distance , in this case to the B3 . B will have the ball . It'll be first and 10 . And in college , the same applies . It's still a PSK foul . However , it's just a 10-yard penalty and , again , we will still enforce it from the end of the kick B1 and 10 from the B3 . So we get the same result but , of note , there's a five-yard difference at each level .
Speaker 1Yeah , that's a good point and this was a fairly recent rule change at the college level . It used to be 15 , but now it falls in line with other illegal blocks , so a good problem to go through . Just in terms of I'm thinking through the punt here , the ball bounces at the B6 . So we've got about a 44 , 64 yard punt here , I think .
Speaker 2It's pretty impressive .
Speaker 1I can say that at the high school level we won't see that . At the Division III level we won't see that , but some good news for us to share is that Michael fairly recently was promoted to the Division II level . We won't see that , but some good news for us to share is that Michael fairly recently was promoted to the Division II level . So I want to point that out early on in this episode . So , although I might not see a 64-yard punt this year , as Michael's moving up in talent and in levels of football that could very well come up this year . So first of all , I just really want to congratulate Michael . He's worked very hard and it's very well deserved and I'm glad that we had a problem that . Let me segue right into that .
Speaker 2It was a great segue , thank you . Thank you very much , ryan . It's great and I'm excited and looking forward to the fall .
Speaker 1Yeah , it's a great thing . I'll miss working with you , of course , but we obviously still get to do things like this and talk repeatedly . They'll get to do things like this and talk repeatedly . So we'll be working different games , but still talking and getting through it all , as we always have . So , again , congratulations to Michael , and we're going to discuss something that applies to everyone listening today , I believe .
Speaker 1Anyway , we're going to talk about this year's high school and college rules , changes and points of emphasis . So we're going to start , as we always do , with high school . Since I'm the only one who will be working high school this year , I'll cover those High school although , to be fair , despite that , michael still knows the NFHS rules , and so we're still going to be covering both going forward . It's not going to change our format . It'll be the same as it always has been . So our rules changes at the high school level this year . Get out your pen and paper . This is a big one . Rule 151B3 clarifies that the home team uniform requirement for each player . The jerseys shall all be the same dark colors that clearly contrast with white . Um , okay , all right , keep that one in mind when you go out and you're like well , that team's wearing blue , that team's wearing white play ball um , you have to imagine some game .
Speaker 2somewhere team came out and thought , hey , let's put the offense in purple and the defense in blue , or something I don't know . I can't imagine where this came from .
Speaker 1I really think it's one of those that somebody looked at it and thought , well , this wasn't written in a way that's going to prevent somebody doing something like that . So we just need to clear up the language so that it matches everyone's common sense anyway . So that is the high school rule change for this year . So last year we had things like holding became a previous spot trial . We had changes over the last couple of years to intentional grounding . We've had big rule changes recently . This year you get to kind of take a year off from the big high school rule changes year . You get to kind of take a year off from the big high school rule changes .
Speaker 1We have three points of emphasis this year . These are largely things that we always talk about . The third one's going to be a little more specific . The first point of emphasis this year is sportsmanship and altercation prevention and protocol . I think sportsmanship is a point of emphasis every year . Even if it's not spelled out , it should be . Altercation prevention is the same thing we always talk about with preventive officiating Stop it before it starts .
Speaker 1The second point of emphasis is player equipment and enforcement . You know , again , the idea is that you know we want players to have mouthpieces in . We want the helmets strapped up . You know , especially in Indiana , there's a big emphasis on the jersey going down to the waist of the pants and the knee pads covering the knees . So we want to enforce those . That is very difficult because college chose this year to not put an emphasis or an enforcement on that .
Speaker 1And the third point of emphasis this year is formations . So we've talked formations . We'll do some episodes coming up where we hit formations what makes it legal and what's not . Again , we're always trying to make it legal . But the point of emphasis this year is going to really require us to make sure that if you're up in the press box , what we think is legal and what we're making legal , you can support that we're making that legal . So we're going to work with the players , we'll talk with the coaches , we'll throw the flag when we need to , but to the extent that you can work with them to make them legal . So that is all of the high school rules changes and points of emphasis this year . Now turn it over to Michael to start with the college rules changes .
Speaker 2The first big one , and I think this has probably been seen on Twitter or Facebook or wherever you are , but we're going to have coach-to-player communication . So this is rule 1411B . But then the exception too . We can now have a communication through a helmet is now allowed in the FBS and a couple of guidelines to go with that . Only one player on the field at a time can have a radio that receives that communication . That coach-to-player communication has to be cut off when the play clock reaches 15 seconds or the snap . So that'll be interesting having those conversations in the booth . And then when the play clock is reset , we would turn the helmet back on . If there's more than one green dot and I jumped ahead of myself these helmets will have a green dot . So if you watch in the NFL , you're seeing a green dot on the back there . That'll be the same . If we do have more than one green dot on the field and it's detected , it's a live ball foul for an equipment violation , and then the conference can take a look at this too .
Speaker 2A conference may develop a policy to provide guidance in handling situations dealing with how things might go if the communications fail . So they're leading it up to each conference . If they involve us , that would be a mess . So let's get the conference to do that . So the back judge mechanics will actually be changed a little bit to develop situations where we have to deal with an in-stadium play clock failure . So if the play clock were to go out and we don't see that 15 seconds in the play clock , we'll have to work with our back judge and our play clock to identify when we reach that 15 seconds and notify the coaches so that communications can be shut off . So that'll be interesting too . And then , lastly , the FCS teams that play an FBS team can utilize a coach to clear communications in that given game , but they won't have it for their regular conference or their regular schedule .
Speaker 1Yeah , and I think most of our listeners , who probably work the D2 and D3 level , this isn't going to be something that we're seeing this year . I can guarantee that in my conference we're not going to see any green dots . Or if there are green dots , it's just because it's an old helmet that had some weird sticker on it . It's not going to signify radio or technology or anything of that sort .
Speaker 2Yeah , I don't think I'll see any green dots either . So , uh , we do new to this year allow for tablets . Uh , for in-game video review . Again , we're still in rule 1411a , for those of you following along . Um , of course , the new rule book hasn't been printed yet , but when it does come out , this is where you'll go .
Speaker 2So the standard tablets for any in-game video review is allowed for this coming season . It will be only to the current game in that game video . So we can't have any sort of like analytics data . So if you're used to watching again , I'll reference NFL . I know they have got all that . What do they call that ? Their quick access analytics that show all the you know dash cam plays or whatever , where we're going 50% when they go to the right , or we go 75% pass and go to the left . So we won't have , we can't have any of that or any other kind of communication . So it can't be like a secondary communication device or anything like that . And then outside of that , no other video just has to be of the game going on .
Speaker 2So these tablets can only be used in the coach's box , the sideline and , of course , the lock room , and they can't be connected in any sort of larger device . So the coach couldn't like take an iPad and hook it up to a big 48-inch TV on the sideline . That's what they're trying to avoid there . However , any feed that we have for that game , so a sideline , an end zone , a TV camera that can be used and can be displayed . We can even have things like if the down , the distance , the time of quarter , all that can be listed there . So if you're familiar with huddle , it can look just like huddle just on a tablet .
Speaker 2And again , this is more game management . Officials really shouldn't have to get involved in this , but for the sake of the rule , a team can have up to 18 tablets and all team personnel may view those tablets . If any team personnel this is key if any team personal engages with an official with a tablet , that's an automatic , unsupportable conduct foul . So if a coach were to bring a tablet to you and say , hey , look at this , you know he stepped out or you know whatever , that is an automatic uns . So that's , that's probably where we get involved , right ? I mean , I , if a visiting coach says , hey , the home team has 21 tablets , I'd okay If he says so , that's , that's game management .
Speaker 1Correct . Um , yeah , the only time if we see a tablet , it's a foul . So , uh , as long as we're not seeing any tablets shown to us , then all is well and we play ball .
Speaker 2And then the last note is wearable technologies . Um , and this is something that I never thought about , but we're talking about , you know , kind of like you know , everybody's got smartwatches nowadays . So the committee had a discussion of wearable technologies , and any non-FBS conferences that are interested in using wearable technologies can start an experimental proposal . But it's a very interesting thought that if you have a smartwatch , a coach could throw a play to you , you know , in a text message or something like that . So , um , I think the idea behind some of that stuff would be , you know , heart monitoring or you know athletic information , but you could , you could get communication on there . So there's , there's another guideline there .
Speaker 1Sure , Uh , one of the big changes this year is going to be a two minute timeout . Um , so this is going to come in our timing rules and rule three . Uh , think of it exactly like the two minute warning in the NFL , but it's definitely not . The two minute warning is going to be the two minute timeout . Don't dare call it the two minute warning .
Speaker 2I think there's a trademark on that phrase , so we're probably not allowed to use it . Dare call it the two minute warning .
Speaker 1I think there's a trademark on that phrase , so we're probably not allowed to use it . Okay , so if we're not allowed to use it , I , uh , I'm going to pull that YouTube . No copyright infringement intended , kind of a warning . Uh , fair use , all that good stuff , uh , kind of deal . Uh , but we're gonna have a two minute timeout . So , uh , if the clock is running and the ball is not live , the referee will stop the clock with exactly two minutes remaining in the second and the fourth quarters for the two-minute timeout . If the ball is live , when the clock reaches two minutes in those quarters , the play will continue , and then , once it's done , the referee will stop the clock when the ball is declared dead for that timeout . There's some language in the rule that a radio or TV broadcast is supposed to hold back at least one media timeout to coincide with that two-minute timeout . Otherwise , if there's no media timeout partner , the timeout is just the standard one-minute timeout plus the five-second referee notification and the 25-second play clock .
Speaker 1One important thing that we need to keep in mind , though even if we're working at a level where we're not dealing with TV or broadcasts and all that good stuff , what this two-minute timeout does is that it brings everything under two minutes .
Speaker 1All those game timing rule changes will be in effect once the clock gets under two minutes . So in the past , where we may have had some differences between two minute and one minute , you know game situations in terms of rules , you know . Think of a 10 second runoff supplying under one minute Now everything that would have applied under one minute . All of that applies once we hit that two minute timeout . So that includes first down timing rules , runs , fumbles backwards , passes out of bounds , some penalty enforcement , replay clock adjustment and all 10 second runoff situations . In all of those scenarios the play clock is going to be set at 25 seconds . So when we're dealing with those timing rules that used to be under two minutes versus under one minute , all going to be the same under two minutes now . So one minute is a good guidepost for us to know we're coming up on the end of the game , but it's not going to change our rules or our mechanics at any point .
Speaker 2That'll be an interesting one . So , kind of along with timing too , we've got a change to the first down timing rule . So last year Division I and Division II opted to not stop the clock on a first down traditionally , and so now the Division III schools will come on board with that as well . So we'll adopt that rule . If we have a play that ends inbounds and a first down is achieved , we will no longer stop the clock in that traditional manner . So Ryan and I worked a couple different level games last year and it was going from Friday night to Saturday , and some of our Saturdays we had it because we do NAIA as well I don't know if we've mentioned that , but we do some NAIA schools and we worked a handful right three or four and it was like okay , we've got to know are we stopping the clock ?
Speaker 2Are we running the clock ? Is it Friday ? Is it Saturday ? It did get a little confusing , so no more of that . If you're still working Fridays , we're stopping the clock . If you're working Saturdays , it's going to keep running . So now , that being said , when we do get inside two minutes in each half , we will then go back to the traditional mechanics of stopping the clock on a first down and then nothing changes for Division I and Division II , because they're already used to it . So if you've been doing it , keep on doing it .
Speaker 2A new collaborative replay has been added , and this is Rule 12-4-3 , so we'll get out of timing here for a minute , but conferences can now have the option of implementing a collaborative instant replay review system , and this is just experimental for the time being . Again , ryan and I probably aren't going to see much of this , but for our listeners out there , a collaborative decision-making model during instant replay reviews must be used in full compliance with rule 12 . And it has to follow that collaborative replay officiating standards , but it's not limited to the press box of a stadium . So there's more to it than that in the officiating standards , but , ryan's not limited to the press box of a stadium . So there's more to it than that in the officiating standards . But , ryan , do you want to add something ?
Speaker 1Yeah , essentially what this does is that , when we think of traditional instant replay , there's officials up in the press box and those are the replay officials and the communicator at the game and they're responsible for reviewing plays and determining the outcome . What this does is it allows there to be some off-site video replay or some video reviews that are done . So , let's say , a conference has one site where they'll have any certain number of officials , they'll be able to view feeds from all their games and they'll be able to communicate with the replay officials who are at the game . So it simply allows the conference to do a little bit more , have a few more eyes on these plays and you know , rather than just those who can fit up in the the press box for replays as well .
Speaker 2So Hypothetically , if you worked at conference that had a bunch of schools in indiana , you know you could have a uh , a replay done in indianapolis , something like that .
Speaker 1That's probably what that would be yeah , it's , it's going to be the bigger conferences . I mean ours are not doing that yet . Yeah , I don't think we'll do that , but I'll be shocked if they do , but uh , it'll be cool . But as with everything else , all this stuff , stuff trickles down and it may take a while to trickle down to my level .
Speaker 2Well , I'll segue with this . We all are working to get better . But maybe you're listening to this show right now and you just stepped on a middle school field for the first time . Maybe you're working JV high school ball , or maybe you work in D3 . Maybe you work in D1 . That's awesome , but we always talk about officiate to the level where you want to be , and so I think it's important to take the time to learn this , because folks listening you may be a high school official and get called to do a couple of D3 or NAIA games . You want to be ready to know those rules . Or maybe a D3 or D2 and get called to fill in on a D1 assignment . You want to know these rules , and so you can kind of expect uh , have an expectation of what you're going to see . So never write it off too soon .
Speaker 1So yeah , no , exactly , that's a good point . I mean it's enjoy where you're at , be the best you can be , but always keep in mind where your goals are , and it's it's sort of the officiating equivalent of dress for the job you want . Right , there you go . There you go . A couple more rules changes this year . There's a change to the horse collar tackle rule at the college level , and if you've never worked college this will sound strange , but there used to be an exception that a horse collar tackle that occurred within the tackle box was not a foul . There was no penalty involved there . So you could yank a quarterback down or running back down as long as they hadn't left that tackle box and they were still there behind the line of scrimmage , there was no foul . So all that this does is it makes every horse collar tackle on the field a foul . So for player safety , now all horse collar tackles , including those occurring within the tackle box , are going to be 15-yard personal foul penalties . One more rule change for the year .
Speaker 1This deals with replay and halftime intermission .
Speaker 1There were a couple of well-publicized plays last year regarding kicks at the end of a half or plays at the end of a half and then some things that were seen by replay or whomever at halftime .
Speaker 1So what this rule does the new halftime intermission rules tells us that at the end of the first half , once the teams have left the field and the referee has cleared the final play with the on-field crew and the instant replay official and there's no coaching challenge , the referee will declare the half ended .
Speaker 1Once the referee has declared the first half over , there can be no additional replay reviews from the previous play . So one exception for that if there's a game for which instant replay is not used , then we can have a halftime targeting video review as we've traditionally had . So at our levels that's something that we may well deal with , just because if there's since we don't have replay if there's a targeting file called , it's subject to review at halftime and a determination of whether that's going to be confirmed or overturned , so that can still be done . It's just if there's a question of a catch-no-catch , or did the ball break the goal line or what have you that can't be looked at at halftime now and have any change to that last play of the first half . So those are all of our college rule changes for this year . We do have some pretty significant , or at least large , editorial changes as well .
Speaker 2So there's three big ones that we'll go over , and the first is a player numbering . Currently , if a player enters the game after changing their jersey number , they have to report that to the referee . So the rules committee made a change . If a player enters a game with a different number than on the roster , they have to report that to the referee . So in the past if you were number 59 and you were tackled and then you came in to be number 89 as a tight end , you would need to tell a referee .
Speaker 2Now that has just moved up in the game . So if a player is listed on their website as 59 but shows up that day as 89 , that needs to be informed to the referee and the referee will then make an announcement or likely inform the other coach when they're doing their meeting . So a player who enters the game after changing their number or with one that's different than that game day roster does commit a foul at that point for unsupportive conduct and it would be directed for that particular player . So if they unfortunately had another one , they would then be ejected .
Speaker 1Yeah , one thing there it's probably going to be difficult for us to know if their number is different than what's on the game day roster . So this may be one where the coaches from the other team are telling you something , or game management or somebody gets involved , you know , in terms of determining this , because we would call the UNS , but in terms of finding how that player is different from what's on the roster , that may be a bit of a challenge , a lot of our games there's lots of doubles , so that's always something to look forward to , but which number four is it ?
Speaker 2The shorter one , the black shoes , the blue shoes , whatever . That's always difficult . Yep , let's see , we'll go to any prohibited field equipment here . So , again , again , just another editorial change . Um , now , again , I believe this rank is going to be an experimental rule from the previous season that we've carried over , correct , yes , okay , so only head coaches may be interviewed in the intermission between the first and second periods , during the halftime intermission and during the intermission or the break between the third and fourth periods . The head coach interviews between the first and second periods and third and fourth periods may not occur during live action and must occur during a scheduled broadcast timeout . So we've probably seen some of those .
Speaker 2If you're watching some of the bigger games on Saturdays , you know , quarter comes soon , in sideline reporter pops over to the head coach , asks a few questions and then on we go . Now this interview needs to take place outside of the team area . That's probably for safety and just to be out in front of everybody . So we're not interfering with players . After a change of possession or a timeout , one cameraman is permitted from the television broadcast onto the playing enclosure . Normally with a camera we would keep off , but they're allowed to be there after a change of possession or during a timeout just to get shots of the team coming and going . So it just looks good on TV . However , that broadcast camera can't enter the team huddle or the team area and has to get off the field of play when the players go into the huddle or line up in formation . So let's get at them .
Speaker 2After a touchdown , we can have a cameraman , permitted from the TV broadcast , go into the end zone . We've probably seen this in the NFL . Right , player scores and the broadcast cam gets up there . And how do we say it ? It focuses the camera in a certain way right On a particular player . They're celebrating , but once they get that shot they need to leave the end zone just before the tribe begins . We do allow now videographers to be in the team area and they're part of the 50 credentialed individuals . So each team gets those 50 credentials they can use and the videographers can now use those , but this video cannot be used during a live broadcast or any sort of digital stream , excuse me . And then , lastly , ball personnel . They cannot wear smartwatches or any communication technology on the opponent's sideline .
Speaker 2That's going to be yeah , that's going to be really difficult to enforce . Um , I know my again . Ryan and I both work in line of scrimmage . We meet , we meet with our changer .
Speaker 2I think this is directed at the chain crew primarily , right , right , um , well , it does say ball personnel . Excuse me , but I know , at kind of our level , that we've got it might be the basketball team or the softball team or lacrosse , but I know I always tell our folks there to say , hey , keep your cell phones away . You know , keep them in your pockets , because you're checking your Instagram . We all know that's fine , but the coach over there , man Correct , you check your phone and next thing , you know , know , his quarterback's getting sacked . Coach has questions , you know , or there's an interception , so it just it's not a good look and on the flip side , we need them to pay attention , right , you know , if you have a good , if you have a good chain crew , I think this nugget here , after all these editorial changes , if you have one good nugget to take away have a good chain crew , because they can , they can help save you and they can make you look good , absolutely absolutely one more uh editorial chain well , a couple more actually , but these deal largely with replays .
Speaker 1So the first one is going to involve dead ball and loose ball and what can be replayed , what can be reviewed now . So the first change is that if a passer is ruled down or out of bounds prior to throwing a pass and the replay official has indisputable video evidence that the ball was released prior to the dead ball ruling , replay can rule on the immediate continuing action . So you can think of this sort of like a fumble or a loose ball where you have a recovery in the immediate continuing action . Same idea here . So let's say they ruled a quarterback down , but there's indisputable video evidence that his knee wasn't down . He got rid of the ball and it was either caught or intercepted . Well then that play is dead where it was caught or intercepted . So you know we have a catch . There's just no advancement allowed from there . Um , so that can be reviewed now . Um , so if the pass was caught by either team , they're going to get possession at that spot with no advance . If the pass is incomplete , then the down counts . So , regardless of the quarterback's need , just as it always would have been , the down is going to count .
Speaker 1So penalty enforcement after replay review as well . There's rules language that's been added that codifies penalty enforcement after replay reviews . Fouls that carry a 5 or a 10-yard penalties are not enforced if the ruling is overturned and they become dead ball fouls . But personal fouls and unsportsmanlike conduct fouls are always enforced regardless of the outcome of a replay review . So this is again , if you think of it . I'm going to oversimplify this terribly , but you always think of those big fouls . For different circumstances they're futile , for others it's personal fouls and UNSs . But big fouls versus the small ones , personal fouls and unsportsmanlike conduct fouls are always going to be enforced regardless of if that play gets overturned after it's replayed . So those are all of our rule changes and our points of emphasis this year for high school and college . You know I was a bit flippant during the high school portion , but it just does seem like a very , very nothing year in terms of Is it an off year this year ?
Speaker 1Well , I don't know if high school has that like college does in terms of the safety files or not . It's just , I think so much if high school has that like college does in terms of the safety files or not , it's just . I think so much has been changed the last couple of years that maybe there was a pause and you know , I suspect that we'll have some significant changes coming up in the next year or two , but for now , this year at least , we can rest easy and hopefully everybody is sharp on all the rule changes from last year . Uh , such as that holding going back to the previous spot , yeah , and then at the college level , the big change is just going to be all levels are going to do that two minute uh timing , um , which d3 didn't do last year . Uh , we're going to have that two minute time out as well . And then there are some technology changes that , uh , that are going to affect some levels more than they will others .
Speaker 1So I think Michael went over those really well . So back up and rewind to where he went over that or just listen again and that'll catch you up to where you need to be there . But that's all of the rule changes for high school and college . That's all the points of emphasis for the year . We appreciate you joining us once again for another episode of Learn your Stripes . For now , though , as always , we're going to leave you with a play to consider .
Speaker 2All right First and 10 from the B20 on the left hash Five seconds to go in the quarter . Qb A1 rolls to his right , throws a pass to A80 in the right corner of the end zone . The ball falls incomplete . The game clock reads zero . The back judge has a flag for defensive pass interference . What is your enforcement in high school and college ? What is the game clock status and play clock status One more question what hash is the ball going to be on ?
Speaker 2Ah , spoilers . Yep , when are we putting the ball ? Yeah , where is the ? Where will the ball be ?
Speaker 1located . We'll discuss that play at the start of our next episode . In the meantime , if you want to let us know what your ruling would be , or if you have any questions or feel we made a mistake , please email us at learnyourstripes at gmailcom . You can also contact us at learnyourstripes at gmailcom if you're interested in sponsoring an episode or advertising on the show . You can find us on your app of choice or obtain episodes at learnyourstripespodcastcom . Please also follow us on Facebook at learnyourstripespodcast , on Instagram at the same name and on X at L-Y-S underscore podcast . If you enjoy the podcast , please tell your friends and rate us five stars and leave a review on your app of choice . We'll see you back here soon . In the meantime , keep learning your stripes . Thank you you .