Hey, SEC fans … listen up.

You’re going to want to know this stuff when the games start in a few weeks.

Each year, the league (and sometimes all of college football) makes some tweaks to the rules to adjust for some of the issues that were observed in previous seasons.

While there is nothing earth-shattering in the changes to the rules in 2015, these are still things you’ll want to be aware of before getting into an argument with your buddy on whether a penalty was warranted this fall.

Here are some of the key rule changes for this season:

Eight-man officiating crews

After experimenting with this idea last season, the SEC has decided to install an extra member of the officiating crew this season.

SEC coordinator of officials Steve Shaw gave the reasoning for the change at SEC Media Days last month:

“As all you guys know, we had been experimenting with eight officials. We had one crew last year that worked with eight. But the rule book now allows a conference to use eight officials in the game. So for us, we are going to use all our crews, eight officials. I just want to say, why do we need eight? The first thing is, oh, man, more penalties. We tracked it last year. Of our nine crews, the one crew that worked eight all season long fit exactly in the middle. So there were four crews that had more penalties per game. There were four crews that had less penalties per game. They were dead in the middle. So it really doesn’t necessarily say we’re going to have more penalties per game with the eighth official. We’re going to get better preventive officiating, but we need that better look.”

Overbuilt Facemasks are now illegal

Remember when defensive linemen would wear masks that looked like they were some kind of robot warrior?

Well, that won’t fly anymore. Citing too much weight of the front of the helmet, the rules committee has made these eyesores a thing of the past.

I say good riddance.

Illegal equipment now requires a player to leave the game

Remember when the rule requiring a player to leave the game for a play if their helmet comes off while on the field was implemented?

This rule is very similar in nature, except it applies to lots of other things, like wearing all of the proper padding, having your shirt tucked in and really anything else an official might construe as illegal equipment.

Here is Shaw’s explanation for how this rule will be implemented:

“We’re kind of treating this — you may think of it just kind of like we do with helmets off now. Before, when our officials would try to get them — wear your jersey properly, whatever. We talk about the jersey. So now, rather than beg and plead the players to get their equipment right, the officials simply, if he’s not wearing his equipment properly — and we’ll be good, we’ll warn them. But if they’re not going to wear their equipment properly, we just send them out of the game. They have to go out of play just like with the helmet off. The coach could call a time-out and buy them back in, but it’s really around good uniforms and player safety.

Kicker blocks on onside kicks is now a reviewable play

Tired of seeing illegal blocks on onside kick reviews and the officials having no power to do anything about it?

Well, apparently the rules committee was tired of that, too.

Here is Shaw’s explanation of the decision to make the play reviewable:

“We’ve tried to stay away from judgment calls. But now an illegal block on an onside kick is reviewable. So why do you say we take a judgment call and make it reviewable? It is such an impactful play in the game, it’s usually a turnover, change of possession. So the Rules Committee felt it was such an impactful play, that we’ll kind of cross over on this one specific circumstance where we’re going to evaluate judgment calls, kind of like we do now with targeting. We review that, and there are a couple of others. But here’s one, because of the impactfulness of the play.”

Pulling other players off a pile is now a penalty

Pulling a player off of a pile, whether it is done with peace-keeping intent or not, is now going to be an automatic 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty.

I see this one having the opportunity for costing a team dearly when a player that didn’t have malicious intent decides to pull guys off a pile, inducing a flag from an official enforcing the new rule as instructed.

Still yet, Shaw said there was a need for this rule:

“Part of the reason for this, pulling players off a pile, every time you pull a player off a pile, you’re going to get a negative reaction that now we’re going to have to officiate when we need to be focused in here. More importantly, what the Rules Committee has been doing is telling players, you can’t do this. This is an automatic unsportsmanlike foul, and they will stop doing it. So that’s the intent. That’s the hope behind this. So now that goes into our list of automatics.”

Independent medical observers

There will be independent medical observers at each SEC venue this season, watching to make sure that proper protocol is being taken in regards to concussion safety.

Shaw likened this to an extra line of defense against the injuries, with player safety being at the forefront of this decision.