Ivy League Rule-Change results in Zero Concussions on Kickoffs in 2016 Season
For the 2016 season, Ivy League football games featured an experiment where kickoffs were initiated from the 40 instead of the 35, in an effort to increase touchbacks, and decrease concussions.
The league just released the findings of the experiment, and announced that it had seen zero concussions on kickoffs during 2016 conference play. In previous years, kickoffs accounted for 23.4 percent of concussions, despite representing only 5.8 percent of overall plays.
October 19th, 2017 at 12:16 AM ^
October 19th, 2017 at 12:00 AM ^
but I think that number is no longer correct as awaremess has gone way up. Athletes are less reluctant to report injury as well, in my opinion, but I don't see numbers saying that either.
October 19th, 2017 at 12:12 AM ^
October 19th, 2017 at 1:22 AM ^
http://www.espn.com/espn/otl/story/_/id/11631357/study-says-26-27-potential-concussions-unreported-college-football
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3758800/
You don't need a diagnosis to have a concussion. As a fanbase we know that by now.
https://publicaffairs.vpcomm.umich.edu/in-game-student-athlete-safety/
October 18th, 2017 at 6:15 PM ^
I heard once a rule proposal where, instead of a kickoff, the team that just scored had basically a 4th and 20 from their own 35. Most teams would punt it - a safer version of the kickoff - and if you wanted an "onsides" you could actually use your offense to go for it instead of kicking an onsides kick, which is all chance. I'd be into it.
October 18th, 2017 at 6:17 PM ^
or kicking off at the 40 and I would think there would be more onside kicks too
October 18th, 2017 at 8:17 PM ^
October 18th, 2017 at 6:19 PM ^
Is to sandwich 8 commercials around them. Get rid of them, for player safety and fan sanity
October 18th, 2017 at 6:34 PM ^
October 18th, 2017 at 7:58 PM ^
October 18th, 2017 at 7:58 PM ^
That would be way, way better. If you knew that every TD/FG meant 3 straight minutes of commercials, with no possibility of something awesome happening in between, you could go get a snack, hit the restroom, or just zone out & talk with your friends that you're watching with. The way they slip that kick-off into the middle, which you have to watch even though there's only a .01% chance that anything cool will happen, makes it much harder to tune out the commercials.
Of course, that's why the TV people love it, and why I'm very pessimistic about progress.
October 19th, 2017 at 5:10 AM ^
I'd like to see many of these commercials replaced with an automatic one-minute commercial break after each clock stoppage for injury or instant-replay. After coming back, TV can show us whatever definitive shots they need to and give the viewer to explain the call. We don't need six different angles repeated and commentators speculating.
One minute is not too long a break to interrupt flow; gives time for the situation to resolve itself; it lets TV "pay the bills"; and keeps viewers tuned and interested with a little suspense as to the outcome of the instant replay call.
October 19th, 2017 at 5:30 AM ^
What the NFL started this year is one of the few things I actually think they got right. During a lot of the reviews they'll split the screen and show the replay on one side and a commercial on the other. Average length of game is under 3 hours now.
October 18th, 2017 at 6:20 PM ^
October 18th, 2017 at 8:36 PM ^
October 18th, 2017 at 8:46 PM ^
October 18th, 2017 at 10:21 PM ^
It would never happen, but it's intriguing to imagine what the modern game might look like. Maybe a more highly skilled version of the 'Turkey Bowl' bowl games a lot of us play at Thanksgiving. There would be all sorts of implications, I'm sure. It would surely slow the speed of defensive pursuit and perhaps increase offensive production as defensive players would be less likely to 'sell out' on tackles. Violent hits leading with the head would be avoided (I would think). OTOH, knees to head and heads hitting hard ground might be as bad or worse than today's results. Somehow, howver, I think people's natural instincts for self preservation might decrease injuries overall. Do Aussie footballers suffer more serious injuries than American rules players? Seems to me that's a reasonable comparison in terms of contact (acknowledging that US players are likely bigger, faster and stronger on average). I odn't know,.. just spitballing in the hypothetical.
October 18th, 2017 at 6:30 PM ^
College football used to kickoff from the 40 until....the early/mid 90's? I did a quick search and can't find when the change took place. The NFL moved from the 40 to the 35 in the early 70's and moved back to the 30 in 1994.
It seems like kickoffs give networks more commercial breaks, so I don't think we'll see them eliminated entirely.
October 19th, 2017 at 4:43 AM ^
BTW going further back, I believe the team scoring would receive the kickoff (presumably because field position was usually considered so important).
But this is probably why you had some games like Red Grange against Miohigan in 1924 where he scored four TDs in the first quarter, or scores like Georgia Tech beating Cumberland 222-0 inn 1916.
October 18th, 2017 at 6:35 PM ^
I often don't embrace change. I'm not a fan of replay (see Sefarian-Jenkins, Calvin Johnson, and a million other replay fuck ups and unwarranted long delays and ridiculous human interpretation of the rules). I despise targeting for obvious reasons. I'm all for player safety but those in power continue to take football out of football. We see it every week - a player unloads a big hit and gets a flag...for making a great football play. We are sadly approaching a day where kickoffs may be completely phased out of the game. Then God forbid there will come a day when QB's will be off limits and will be wearing flags. The game is slowly phasing itself out and that is sad.
October 19th, 2017 at 6:07 AM ^
October 18th, 2017 at 6:37 PM ^
October 18th, 2017 at 7:38 PM ^
October 18th, 2017 at 7:01 PM ^
why is a touchback brought out to the 25 now? It penalizes a team for kicking it out the back of the endzone where now you can sky a kickoff and pin them deep? makes no sense what so ever if they were trying to protect the kids.
October 18th, 2017 at 7:23 PM ^
In theory that is true. But most teams don't have a "Doug" Foug to sky it inside the 5. It seems like more kickoffs are touchbacks than returns these days which is helping to protect the players a bit more.
October 18th, 2017 at 7:25 PM ^
October 18th, 2017 at 8:01 PM ^
is correct (imho)
October 18th, 2017 at 7:28 PM ^
October 18th, 2017 at 7:39 PM ^
They moved up the kick off line making touchbacks easier so they moved the touchback 5 yards up to compensate.
October 18th, 2017 at 7:03 PM ^
Mandatory drop kick.
October 18th, 2017 at 8:06 PM ^
October 18th, 2017 at 8:34 PM ^
October 19th, 2017 at 12:02 AM ^
October 19th, 2017 at 10:01 AM ^
it came over from europe but really started to form in the civil war. Cool exhibit in Canton on Art and Football. Worth a snoop... has some renditions of early games. No daguerreotypes that I am aware of unfortunately. But yeah... team brawl... that is where it started.
October 18th, 2017 at 8:08 PM ^
October 18th, 2017 at 8:11 PM ^
October 18th, 2017 at 8:18 PM ^
October 19th, 2017 at 4:32 AM ^
...or even from your 20, just like a safety.
But I wonder what the injury statistics are for punt returns compared with kickoff returns, so I am not sure how much injuries would be reduced.
October 19th, 2017 at 11:35 AM ^
havent seen that before...she went down like she was hit by a comet
October 18th, 2017 at 8:36 PM ^
October 18th, 2017 at 9:03 PM ^
October 18th, 2017 at 8:55 PM ^
is to kick multiple unmarked footballs on each kickoff and only one actually counts for the return.
October 18th, 2017 at 8:59 PM ^
Leather helmets. No 3-point stance.
No concussions.
October 18th, 2017 at 10:27 PM ^
Those two are true of rugby, but concussions still occur.
October 19th, 2017 at 12:09 AM ^
It would change the game for sure.
October 18th, 2017 at 9:06 PM ^
Changed to the 35 about 30-35 years ago. They changed it because there were too many touchbacks and they wanted to get more returns.
October 18th, 2017 at 9:31 PM ^
Ivy League? More like Bush league.
/SNAP
October 18th, 2017 at 9:57 PM ^
October 18th, 2017 at 11:07 PM ^