You know, Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz might have a point about this ($$):
Constant tinkering of college football’s rules has contributed to the sport’s officiating inconsistencies and has the potential to erode confidence in the overall product, Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz said.
In an exclusive interview with The Athletic, Ferentz believes officials are better trained and better equipped than ever before. However, the on-field arbiters are asked to review too many points of emphasis and judge too much of the action during the game, he said.
“We’ve made the game harder to interpret and officiate,” Ferentz said.
At least with regard to targeting, that’s what you get when the sport’s masters are more concerned about being sued than being consistent.
Get The Picture 
Kirk isn’t wrong. When you’re focused on protecting the QB from the smallest contact above the shoulders or whether a guy uses his weight in a tackle, you miss the infractions that really do change the outcome of plays … holding, tripping and chop blocking. When you are constantly watching defensive backs for targeting, you miss the former basketball player wide receiver who shoves every DB he is up against like he’s blocking out for a rebound or the rub route that really is a block. When something happens, the flag typically goes against the defensive player.
I’m all for making the game as safe as possible. At some point, the men (that’s what college players are) have to understand the inherent physical harm they are exposing their bodies to. I tend to believe that the safety of the game is in the coaching of fundamentals rather than officiating.
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I agree with you. I would have preferred to let them play while having stiffer penalties for the really egregious violations that could mostly be called from the booth.
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The games feature a lot more offense, but the close ones are also giving us way more weird calls and replays. Oddities that really impact game outcomes. Kirk is dead on with consumer confidence side of it.
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I don’t want to take officials totally out of the game, but with modern technology and sensors, it would allow them to focus on the human element of it vs the physical element.
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Targeting gets the most attention these days, but the two which are missed the most often are pass interference, and where to draw the line on offensive holding. It is usually the “degree” issue that causes the most dispute on both of these issues, and give fans the most legit reasons for complaint. The timing on when they are called, or not, makes them more controversial. And the controversies get them even more bad press/replays which undermines confidence even further.
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Slightly off topic, but would you pay to have a TV package for the whole season of SEC games, distributed to your living room ENTIRELY COMMMERCIAL FREE ? and how much would you pay ?
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Two words: Mute button
Three words: Next day youtube
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I am surprised the SEC Network hasn’t experimented with this for some of the baby seal clubbing type of games (or even limited commercial interruption). If they could show live viewership went up, maybe you would see more of it.
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Targeting is an issue because they randomly and rarely enforced spearing for decades.
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My point exactly and SportsCenter loves showing those hits. Use of the helmet as a weapon has always been against the rules. It’s a dangerous play for the target and the defender. If I remember correctly, Devon Gales’s neck injury was caused by dropping the head and leading with the crown of the helmet on the Marshall Morgan block.
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Agreed further the NCAA has a track record for making 1 penalty the focus of the year and then dropping it. Horse Collar tackles were the call for a season and then rapidly faded.
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To me this ties in nicely to the prior post about the official who admits they jobbed UGA in the 2017 title game.
These guys can’t get stuff like Offsides and Facemasks correct, yet we ask them to judge even more complicated things. Good luck.
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