We’re inching closer to the start of the football season. Until we get there, here’s a new topic to debate...Kickoffs in College Football (via Dennis Dodd/CBS Sports):
Preliminary discussions have begun within two influential college football bodies into possibly removing kickoffs from the game, CBS Sports has learned.
Both the American Football Coaches Association's board of trustees and the NCAA Division I Football Oversight Committee have at least had informal talks about the possibility.
The reason: player safety.
"I don't think there is any doubt it is the most dangerous play in the game," said Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby, chairman of that oversight committee. "How much that's the case and how we can fix it is unknown."
Both entities are reviewing injury data to gauge the impact of kickoffs. Preliminary indications are that injuries occur at a higher rate on kickoffs, according to sources.
Any rules change probably won't come until after the 2017 season. Eliminating kickoffs has not yet been a discussion for the NCAA rules committee, according to its secretary-rules editor Rogers Redding.
Jason Kirk of the SB Nation Mothership thinks kickoffs should be eliminated:
Kickoffs are dangerous and usually boring. There are very few good reasons to keep them, and those good reasons are outweighed by a couple points I’d like to make, if you have a moment:
1. Kickoffs are dangerous.
2. Kickoffs are usually boring.
[snip]
If it can make players safer, we should do it. Kick return touchdowns and grandiose opening kickoff emotions stick out in our minds, but by the 45th commercial-touchback-commercial combo of autumn, all that is out the window anyway.
It’s hard to argue with any of that. Frankly, I agree that this is an easy player safety win. That said, I’ve got no good suggestions about what the correct replacement would be. That’s why I’m turning it over to you all.
Should college football get rid of kickoffs?
If you’ve got suggestions about what to replace them with that’d be fun to read in the comments too!