Is the kickoff an endangered play in college football?
The American Football Coaches Association and the NCAA Division I Football Oversight Committee have held informal discussions about the possibility of eliminating kickoffs from the college game due to player-safety concerns, according to CBS Sports. Sources told CBS that preliminary data gathered by the two groups indicates a higher rate of injuries occurring on kickoffs.
"I don't think there is any doubt it is the most dangerous play in the game. How much that's the case and how we can fix it is unknown," said Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby, per the report. Bowlsby chairs the oversight committee.
If the elimination of the kickoff is to happen, the NCAA Rules Committee would have to make it happen. The AFCA advises the NCAA Rules Committee and changes recommended by the rules committee are vetted by the oversight committee before they're approved. The discussion hasn't yet reached the rules committee, but the NCAA's secretary-rules editor, Rogers Redding, acknowledged the preliminary indications with regard to concussions. According to the report, any potential rule change wouldn't likely happen until after the 2017 season.
"The fragmentary data we do have (is) most concussions happen (at a higher rate) on kickoffs," Redding, the former SEC coordinator of officials, told CBS Sports. "It will be discussed."
Pop Warner youth football has eliminated the play at ages 10 and under.
If the college game eliminated the kickoff, NFL special-teams coaches would eventually have their hands full in teaching concepts and techniques for kickoffs and kickoff returns to incoming pros who wouldn't have been exposed to the play since high school.
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