Rule changes

There have been a couple of those "rule changes we'd like to see" type of articles floating around in this never-ending off-season. I've been thinking about the same thing, partly inspired by Auburn's embarrassing decision to reject a game with UCLA. So I jotted down a few ideas.

You'll notice, in the list below, that several of my suggestion don't involve the actual on-the-field game. I think that part works pretty well. What we need are bigger, structural changes. Here are some changes I'd like to see the NCAA make for college football:

-Go back to the old clock rules.

-Go back to the old face mask penalty rules.

-Require color-on-color uniforms when possible, allowing white jerseys only when a team designates white as their home uniform color or when the colors match so closely as to make it impossible to easily distinguish the teams during play.

-Make defensive pass interference a spot foul.

-Either make replay work in a time limit (there's no reason it can't be done in 30 seconds) or switch to having coach's challenges. I think the challenge would work better -- give each coach three challenge time-outs, and if the challenge stands, keep the time-out. Also, if a team is out of time-outs, give a challenge on any play that scores points, but a missed challenge in that case is a 15-yard penalty and a loss of down against the offense or a 15-yard penalty on the kick-off against the defense.

-For the purposes of determining bowl eligibility, any home game that does not involve a scheduled return game to the opposing team's stadium or a neutral site cannot count as a win. If a team schedules such a game and then breaks the contract, that team receives a loss in the season said game was scheduled.

-For the purposes of determining bowl eligibility, all games against Football Championship Subdivision (formerly known as "1-AA") teams will count as a loss.

-Eliminate overtime and bring back tie games.

-Go back to the old bowl system and eliminate all conference tie-ins except for the Sugar, Rose, Orange, and Fiesta Bowls.

-Have a sixty-second TV time-out at the 8-minute mark of each quarter and a two-minute TV time-out between each quarter. Besides that, the game keeps moving (excluding, of course, stopping play as a result of injury, fights, power outages, etc).