Safety Rules for College Football

There are two kinds of safety rules in college football. First, there are the rules that a fan might think off. These are rules created to protect the players from getting hurt. But ask a football expert about safety rules, and you’re likely to get a rundown of obscure dictates that determine scoring in some unusual circumstances. Both kinds of safety rules play an important role in the game.

  1. Illegal Tackling

    • To ensure the safety of the players, college football has specific rules regarding tackling. First, players cannot block opposing players from the back. A block is when one player interferes with another player’s attempt to tackle the quarterback or the receiver. Blocks must be done from the front so the player being blocked isn’t taken by surprise and injured.

      A defensive player also is not allowed to grab or tackle a receiver while the football is in the air. He has to wait until the receiver catches the ball to initiate the tackle. Defensive players can attempt to intercept the ball, and incidental contact as a result is not illegal.

    Dangerous Play

    • To maintain a safe game, officials can call unnecessary roughness if they see a tackle that happens after a player passes the ball away or after a play has ended. In college football, tackling is meant only to aid the progress of the game and is never acceptable as retribution.

      During play, players cannot grab another player’s facemask and pull or twist because that could cause an injury. Players also cannot grab the back of another player’s jersey at the neck during a tackle. This is called a horse-collar tackle and is illegal for safety reasons.

      During a tackle, players must avoid the top of the target player’s helmet. Facemask grabbing, horse-collar tackling and contact with the top of the helmet can all lead to injuries and so each is ruled as a personal foul and results in a 15-yard penalty.

    Safety Scoring

    • A team scores a safety when the other team loses control of the football in the field of play, the ball crosses into the fumbling team’s end zone and one of those team members recovers the ball while in the zone. So, imagine team A kicks off and a player from team B catches the ball near his end zone only to drop the ball, which then rolls into the end zone. If a player from team A recovers the ball while in the end zone, then team A would score a touchdown, but if a player from team B recovers the football, a safety is scored and team A receives one point instead of six.