NCAA approves helmet communication, 2-minute warning for college football

The NCAA has approved a set of rule changes that will make college football similar to the professional game, namely adding a two-minute warning and adopting helmet communications for the FBS level. The NCAA announced the changes were adopted after a vote on Thursday.

The adoption of the two-minute warning will apparently not result in an additional television timeout. The use of helmet communications will be limited to the FBS levels to begin, but the use of sideline tablets is being permitted for all three NCAA divisions.

Additionally, the rules for the helmet communication are almost a carbon copy of the NFL rules. One player for each team can be on the field and wearing a helmet with the communication technology at a time. The helmets with the communications tech in them will be marked by a green dot sticker on the back of the helmet, exactly how the NFL manages the identification. And in a final similar to the NFL, the communication from sideline to player will cut off at 15 seconds left on the play clock or when the ball is snapped, whichever comes first.

The coach-to-player helmet communication became a hot-button issue during the 2023 season after revelations about impermissible scouting by a Michigan staffer to suss out opponents signals. The technology has been used in the NFL for decades.

There are also rules for the amount of tablets to be used, and for what purposes.

“Teams can have up to 18 active tablets for use in the coaching booth, sideline and locker room,” the release announcing the new rules said. “Tablets cannot be connected to other devices to project larger additional images and cannot include analytics, data or data access capability or other communication access. All team personnel will be allowed to view the tablets during the game.”

All of the new rules being adopted were approved by the NCAA Playing Rules Oversight Panel (PROP) after earlier consideration in February by the NCAA Rules Committee.

A model for the College Football Playoff past 2025 is still being ironed out

In mid-March, it was reported that a deal was close to being finalized, but there hasn’t been much movement or official confirmation since.

At that point, the 10 FBS conferences and Notre Dame were apparently preparing to agree to the next contract in the next 24 hours, ESPN’s Heather Dinich and Pete Thamel reported.

The expectation was each conference and Notre Dame would sign a memorandum of understanding in short order. That news comes one day after Yahoo! Sports’ Ross Dellenger reported the Big 12 and ACC presidents unanimously approved framework for the new-look CFP, including a new revenue model and “concepts” for a new format.

This year, the CFP will expand to 12 teams, but the 14-team format would begin in 2026 at the same time a new media deal would begin with ESPN. As the discussions went along, there were a few ideas about what that would look like – including multiple automatic qualifiers for the Power Conferences.

Reported discussions also included automatic byes for the Big Ten and SEC following their expansions. However, ESPN reported the CFP is reconsidering that idea after public backlash – including from Big 12 and ACC coaches.