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The NCAA is reportedly exploring changes to its “too many men on the field rule” in college football after Oregon head coach Dan Lanning exploited a major loophole on Saturday.
Lanning confirmed Monday that he intentionally fielded too many men late in Saturday’s game against Ohio State to force the Buckeyes to waste precious seconds in exchange for the 5-yard penalty.
Now Ross Dellenger of Yahoo Sports reports that the NCAA is working to close the loophole that Lanning took advantage of.
The NFL currently assesses a 5-yard penalty for too many men on the field on the defense and puts time back on the clock.
But in college, the time does not go back on the clock. At the time of the play, Lanning determined that the 5 yards were less valuable than the seconds that Ohio State used to run the play.
“We spend an inordinate amount of time on situations, there’s some situations that don’t come up very often in college football, but this was one that obviously was something that we had worked on,” Lanning said with a wry smile when asked about the incident. “You can see the result.”
NCAA Works Quickly To Address Potential ‘Too Many Men’ Rule Change
Unsurprisingly, the NCAA is wasting little time responding to the incident to avoid it becoming commonplace in the future.
“Steve Shaw, the NCAA secretary rules editor, told Yahoo Sports on Tuesday that the NCAA Football Playing Rules Committee is actively ‘engaged’ in examining the play for possible action,” Dellenger reports. “The Big Ten officiating crew handled the play appropriately, Shaw said, but the rules committee is discussing a way to address the play.”
“We’ve had good dialogue on this play,” Shaw told Yahoo Sports. “We’ve recognized the way it played out.”
The officials did nothing wrong. Lanning did nothing wrong, and there’s nothing the Buckeyes could have done differently. But it’s clear that the rule as written is severely flawed.