Steve Shaw had some enlightening comments about the celebration rule in the wake of the snafu that wrapped up the Utah-Southern Cal game last weekend.
My overall sense is that he thinks the rule is stupid and cumbersome. He doesn’t like it very much, in case you don’t get the point:
“There is a perception that this penalty is called differently in some parts of the country than it is in others. It’s really not. And keep in mind, it is not the officials doing this. It is the coaches. Not one official is on the rules committee.
“The rules are made by the coaches. This is what they agreed on and how they want the game run. We are trying to implement the rule they made.”
And how about this Tyler Bray-ish scenario?
… The penalized action must occur during the play for it to cause points to be taken down, as in a player celebrating improperly as he approaches the end zone. But, Shaw cautioned, it is not just the player who has the ball who can be flagged for the more serious offense.
“It is a spot foul,” Shaw said. “Say a quarterback throws a long touchdown pass and during the play he runs to midfield and does the throat-slash gesture to the opposing team.
“The ball would be returned to midfield and the 15 yards marked off from there. The touchdown wouldn’t count.”
This isn’t going to end well.
Get The Picture 
The rule is exceedingly dumb. As you say, this will not end well for some team somewhere.
That said, I do hope that young Mr. Bray has some kind of epic meltdown this weekend. For all the cockiness of the young man, he does seem to be a legitimate SEC talent throwing to legitimate SEC wide receivers. This Tennessee team will bite some other SEC team this year. I hope it is not the mighty Gators.
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If Florida’s defensive line is as good as you guys claim it is, the Gators should win this one comfortably. The Vols can’t stop the run worth a damn.
Although I do like Justin Hunter’s game a lot. It’s just that I don’t think Tennessee can win simply on the basis of its passing attack.
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To this point, Florida’s defense line seems to be able to stop the run. Not sure about QB pressure though.
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Coaches get put on the rules committee and then feel they have to “do something”. That’s how you get stupid rules like this. Coaches that get appointed to a rules committee need to realize that sometimes doing nothing is a better option, even if it means they don’t get to leave their own personal mark on the game for posterity.
Baseball, if you can believe it, is even worse. Major League Baseball has a set of rules that have been in place for decades with very few changes over time (screw the DH, by the way). The NCAA, though, always has 3 or 4 major rules changes each year that tinker with the game. Usually they’re put in to fix a specific, strange scenario that happened the year before and they end up causing more problems than they fixed (for a football example, think of the running kickoff clock and the subsequent Bielema rule). When the next set of coaches rotate on to the rules committee, they get rid of the stupid old rule and come up with a different stupid new one.
I’m sure plenty of other sports work that way, I just happen to be most familiar with baseball.
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When I was in the Navy, it seemed like every few years all the old acronyms would be replaced with new acronyms. I firmly believe that there is a wing of the Pentagon where officers get a cush assignment to update (read change) acronyms on a willy-nilly basis just to justify the positions. However, it is good for south Georgia timber men because republishing all of the SOPs and regulations with updated acronyms takes forests of trees.
Seems this yearning to change for changes sake is widespread. Sigh…
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Back in the 60s there was a field manual of acronyms. Many of us ridiculed it because “in-group” acronyms are invented by many people to make up for brain matter, to have something that no one else knows, used as a talking weapon. Had a guest several years ago who, while not in active military, spoke mostly in acronyms. I asked my wife, who was in a military family for over 20 yrs, if she understood what had been said and she replied “No.” I confessed that I had only understood partially.
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This is going to leave a mark….
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I remember 5 or 6 years ago when they came out with the abortive rule that the clock would start at the kick of the ball. That was another rule “Created by the coaches.” I think Tubberville was even the chair, and took some personal heat for it, if I remember. The rule might have been created by the coaches, but it would be disingenuous to say they were responsible for it. The impetus for it was the TV broadcasters desire to shorten the game and fit in more commercials. This is probably similar. To lay it on the coaches might be a bit unfair.
When one of these calls changes the outcome of a critical game, the hue and cry will start and it’ll be off the books again.
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“When one of these calls changes the outcome of a critical game, the hue and cry will start and it’ll be off the books again”
I just hope that the game is something like Utah-USC instead of a game that really means something. This is just a very stupid rule.
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Why don’t they just place a 15-second rule for celebration in or next to the end zone? At the end of that time, all members of the team must be headed for the bench. That way, we can all be happy and let it add to the enjoyment of the game.
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The real problem with this is that it gives the ones wearing stripes (and their masters at the conference office) a real tool to manipulate the outcomes of games. Here’s how it would go: 10 seconds to go in the game, QB passes to receiver who catches the ball at the 5 yard line and raises his hand as he is entering the endzone. Penn Wagers drops his flag at the 1 yard line, orders points off the board, marches off 15 yards from the 1 and places the ball at the 16. He then toots his whistle and the last 1 second on the clock ticks away without the offense even getting to snap the ball. Voila! Mission accomplished. The “right” team wins and the losing coach gets blamed for the loss and gets fired. Tell me with a straight face that there will ever again be an upset in the SEC. The non-favored team will have to beat the favored team by 2 TDs in order to keep the refs from stealing the game. (Examples: See LSU vs.UGA, 2009 and Arkansas vs. Florida, 2009). Question for the day: Ever wonder why the only people in our society who wear striped uniforms are refs and convicts?
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