NCAA considering significant college football rules change for 2026 season amid Urban Meyer’s ‘powerless’ claim
The NCAA is considering a significant rule change for the 2026 college football season, as the sport’s governing body battles claims it has become ‘powerless’ in recent times.
Changes around the punishment for ‘targeting’ penalties are set to be a major discussion point this week, when the NCAA Football Playing Rules Committee holds its annual meeting at the NFL Scouting Combine.
Recently, calls have also been made for a shift in how the sport approaches extreme weather, but player safety issues will surely be of higher priority.
Targeting is defined as a hit that ‘goes beyond making a legal tackle or a legal block or playing the ball’ and rules prohibit ‘initiating forcible contact’ against the opposition.
That could be, for example, leading with the helmet while making forcible contact, or making forcible contact with the head or neck area of a ‘defenseless’ opponent.
Under current regulations, players who are ejected for targeting during the second half of a game are forced to sit out the first half of the following week, as a carryover suspension.
The NCAA has long aimed to crack down on dangerous hits to the head, and a player being suspended across two games is a significant penalty.
However, targeting is largely a judgement call on the field, and penalties are often controversial.
After adopting the rule back in 2008, the NCAA now appears ready to make a significant update.
NCAA to discuss changes to controversial targeting rule
According to The Athletic, which cites ‘multiple people briefed’ on the upcoming discussions, the committee could propose to remove the carryover suspension for first-time offenders on second-half targeting penalties.
Even with that change, a 15-yard penalty and ejection would remain in place.
Players flagged for targeting multiple times within the same season could be subject to harsher punishment.
The Athletic’s Chris Vannini added that the rules committee will draw up with proposals at meetings on Tuesday and Wednesday, before they spend the next month gathering feedback ahead of final decisions in March.
Targeting rules came under the spotlight in the 2025 season, when Miami cornerback Xavier Lucas was forced to sit out the first half of the National Championship Game against Indiana, for a penalty he committed in the Fiesta Bowl semifinal.
Hurricanes coach Mario Cristobal said at the time that he felt the call was ‘unjustly administered.’
If a rule change is made, targeting suspensions will be softened, but the safety of those on the field will still be paramount.
For many coaches, players and fans, that’s a win-win.
The NCAA, though, is facing claims it has lost control in recent years.
Hall of Fame college coach brands NCAA a ‘powerless organization’
Amid struggles to enforce rules around eligibility — with Ole Miss quarterback Trinidad Chambliss making recent headlines — the transfer portal and NIL stipulations, Urban Meyer believes the governing body has been rendered ‘powerless.’
“The NCAA, to give them credit, every time they’ve set a penalty, they’ve tried to enforce something,” the Hall of Fame coach told his co-hosts on The Triple Option podcast.
“They litigate, they go to court and they lose. There is some empathy to understand they don’t have subpoena power.
“They’re a powerless organization right now.”
On-field issues, of course, are entirely separate to all the off-field controversy around collegiate sports.
There are no short-term solutions for eligibility, the transfer portal and NIL funding, but the NCAA would land a much-needed win by making a change to targeting rules this summer.
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