College football’s targeting rule could be revised, but it’s not going away

During the national championship game last week, a team played the first half without a key defensive player.

Miami cornerback Xavier Lucas spent the first two quarters sidelined as part of a targeting foul he committed in the second half of the previous game – a semifinal win over Ole Miss. The foul cost Miami 15 penalty yards, disqualified Lucas from the final three defensive drives of the semifinal and, in a postponed disqualification, kept him from playing in the first half of the biggest game of his career — the national championship game against Indiana.

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Miami head coach Mario Cristobal called the foul and punishment “unfair.”

Well, this offseason, officials plan to look at potential changes to the most scrutinized penalty in all of college football.

“We’re going to have a discussion about targeting,” Steve Shaw, the NCAA’s national coordinator of officials and chief rules editor, told Yahoo Sports last week from Miami, site of the national title game. “This needs to be an annual discussion. It will be a focused discussion.”

Is targeting on the proverbial chopping block? No, not even close. There won’t be any “backups” on the targeting rule, Shaw says, because the company has managed to make the game safer by changing player behavior related to head collisions.

However, certain aspects of the targeting penalty structure are under scrutiny, such as the disqualification penalty.

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“Targeting has led to a change in player behavior and the numbers reflect that,” Shaw said. “But how can we continue this trend of eliminating more shots we don’t want in the game while being less punishing?”

Targeting has indeed changed player behavior. In fact, since 2020 – what Shaw calls the peak of targeting fouls – there has been an annual decrease in the number of targeting penalties. In 2020, officials reported a player for targeting once every four games. This year, that figure is more like once every seven to eight games.

Targeting, however, remains the most controversial, confusing and frustrating penalty, not only among college football fans, but also among coaches and administrators.

The NCAA defines targeting as when a player initiates forced contact against an opposing player at the head or neck area, most often – but not always – when leading with the crown (top) of the helmet against a defenseless player. If a player makes forced contact with a defenseless player’s head, targeting may also be called for.

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Targeting results in a 15-yard penalty, and the player who committed the act is disqualified for the remainder of the current game. If the penalty occurs in the second half of a match, that player is also disqualified for the first half of the next match.

When exploring the penalty structure this offseason, officials must determine whether disqualification – and carryover disqualification – is still warranted. Could rules makers create two different levels of targeted fouls, similar to flagrant fouls in basketball?

A harsher targeting penalty – lowering the helmet crown into an opposing player’s helmet, for example – could warrant the meter penalty plus disqualification. But a less severe penalty — like Lucas’ hit on Ole Miss receiver Cayden Lee (shoulder in helmet) — may require only penalty yards.