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The SEC announced adjustments to its roughing-the-kicker rule at SEC Media Days on Tuesday morning.
Officials will no longer call roughing-the-kicker or running-into-the-kicker if contact is made more than 5 yards from where the kicker was originally standing. SEC coordinator of officials John McDaid made the announcement.
CFB rule change via SEC's John McDaid: running into/roughing the kicker not called if kicker is "displaced more than five yards" from where he was originally standing. This can be called the Missouri-Kentucky Rule, after the roughing the kicker call that changed that game in 2022
— Pat Forde (@ByPatForde) July 18, 2023
The rule change follows a controversial finish to the Missouri-Kentucky game last season in-which Mizzou was called for roughing-the-kicker late in the game. The Wildcats won 21-17.
Here’s the play — and an example of a penalty that won’t be called moving forward:
— no context college football (@nocontextcfb) November 5, 2022
Other clock-related rule changes were also discussed by McDaid on Tuesday morning. The NCAA previously announced multiple changes to the clock, including:
- The 1st and 3rd quarters will no longer extend for an accepted penalty if game clock expires during the down.
- Teams can not call consecutive timeouts during the same dead ball period
- The clock will continue to run after 1st downs in-bounds, except for under 2 minutes in each half.
McDaid said the goal is to limit the number of games that take more than 3 hours, 45 minutes to complete. The SEC average was previously 3 hours, 21 minutes.
SEC Coordinator of Officials John McDaid on length of game topic: ‘There isn’t much concern for games that last 3 hours, 21 minutes (SEC average). The concern becomes when are 3:45 or more.’ pic.twitter.com/P5FfpNhHFE
— Chuck Dunlap ? (@SEC_Chuck) July 18, 2023
Spenser is a news editor for Saturday Down South and covers college football across all Saturday Football brands.
