I wouldn’t say it’s a cause for celebration, but I assume the NCAA has greeted this news with a sigh of relief.
The NCAA says the number of enforced targeting penalties in the Football Bowl Subdivision this season was the same as in 2017, ending four straight years of increased calls.
NCAA national coordinator of officials Rogers Redding reported 179 enforced calls in 817 games compared with 179 in 816 games last season.
Presumably, that means there won’t be much, if any, tinkering with the rules or enforcement protocol this offseason. Although, curiously, the SEC saw the number of such calls climb precipitously, from 27 in 2017 to 39 this season. I’m sure Steve Shaw will get right on that any minute now.
Get The Picture 
The SEC…We just hit harder.
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A targeting flag in the SEC always enables Birmingham to make the final decision. Don’t expect the number to decrease anytime soon.
#BamaPrivilege
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Aw hell. It would have kept climbing but the Refs can’t see it with their eyes closed. Avoiding having to make those pesky holding calls, you know.
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Change the penalty to 20 yards and let the offender stay in the game unless he does it a second time.
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Nope. They need to get helmet to helmet contact out of the game. I fine with the pros bashing their skulls. These are college kids. If they were going to change a rule related to targeting, the rule change would need to be to require the tackler to attempt to wrap up the ball carrier. That will force them to get their head out of the tackle.
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Until they are paid.
When they start getting paid they should really have the same standards as the pros.
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They’re paid now.
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Agree, double the penalty if necessary, but only disqualify for multiple violations. DQs delayed a week into the future will not discourage any change in behavior. Some of those get enforced more than a week later, up to a month in near bowl season. LSU penalty was 2 weeks after the call. If 20 year olds thought that far ahead there would so many differences in their behavior we wouldn’t recognize any of them.
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I don’t see any need to double the penalty. Just eject on the second offense of the game. Other than that it’s 15 yards. Or if we really want to get technical every third offense against a player equals a one game suspension. There are ways to improve safety reasonably, but the current system is simple a cya overreaction by the NCAA to use as a defense in future court proceedings about player safety.
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Simply *
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I’d like to see how many fewer holding calls there were this year than the last few. It seems there was a holding flag on every 4th or 5th play not too long ago… Hell, now its apparently legal to tackle D Linemen by the neck
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Don’t forget the missed call against Washington State. That puts them at one more than last season. Maybe that’s why the call got overturned.
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