Ryan Day wants to adapt College Football's targeting rule

Like many college football fans, Ohio State head coach Ryan Day is not a fan of the targeting rule in its current form. 

After Ohio State linebacker Steele Chambers was ejected from last weekend’s Penn State game for targeting, Day went on the record with a different way to enforce the penalty. 

“It’s a unique situation in that it was the first play of the second half,” Day said, per Griffin Strom of Eleven Warriors.

Chambers, a converted running back, hit Nittany Lions quarterback Sean Clifford on the first series of the third quarter as he started to slide, resulting in the call. The initial flag was a personal foul, but after a review, the call was changed to targeting. Chambers had three tackles and a quarterback hurry before the disqualification.

Day takes issue with ‘halves’ rule

Because of the timing of the hit, Chambers missed the remainder of the Penn State game and will have to sit out the first half of Ohio State’s game against Nebraska next weekend. The ejection rule is as follows, per the NCAA website: 

“If the foul occurs in the first half of a game, the player is ejected for the remainder of the game,” the 2013 rule change states. “If the foul occurs in the second half or overtime of a game, the player is ejected for the remainder of the game and the first half of the next contest.”

Day went on to suggest that the punishment for targeting should be a 30-minute ejection rather than an ejection based on halves, as there is “inequity” in the way the rule is currently enforced. According to the current rule, a player ejected on the final play of a game only has to sit out for one half the next week. In other words, they receive a far shorter penalty than someone in Chambers’ situation for the same foul.

What is targeting?

As with many college football rules, the definition of targeting is complicated, murky and often somewhat subjective. The simple definition includes hitting a defenseless player with forcible contact above the shoulders while leading with the crown of one’s helmet.

Calls for changes to the rule include a system more like the flagrant foul system in college basketball. According to the NCAA website, a Flagrant I is “excessive in nature or unnecessary or avoidable,” while a Flagrant II includes actions taken that are “brutal, harsh or cruel or dangerous or punishing.” The former results in two foul shots and possession of the ball for the offended team, while the latter results in two foul shots and the ejection of the offending player. 

The argument in football is an automatic ejection for a play that was clearly not intended to cause harm is too severe, and there should be a tiered system as there is for basketball.