If safety, for all the players involved, is the goal, then the plan to eliminate kickoffs absolutely is worth consideration.Īs with the NFL toying with the idea in 2012, there will be pushback as NFL.com highlights from several coaches and players. Under the Schiano plan, teams would be rewarded for having quality punters, but the safety of every teams' players would be taken into account by eliminating the collisions that come with the kickoff. Meanwhile, for those teams without a kicker possible of sending the ball the comfortable 65-plus yards into the end zone, their players are still exposed to the dangers. After all, under the current system, only the players on a team with a strong kicker are protected. If the goal is to reduce kickoffs and stop the violent contact that comes with the practice, it makes sense to simply eliminate them in general. Butch Dill/Associated Press/Associated Press/Associated Press/Associated Press However, the move also worked to effectively reduce the amount of kickoffs, to an ever increasing extent.Ĭody Parkey's touchbacks 70.41 percent of the time helped keep his teammates out of harm's way. The rules folks recognize the issues with the kickoff and attempted to respond to the need. Since Staples' data were produced, the NCAA has moved the kickoff up to the 35-yard line, in a move explained as a safety measure to reduce collisions. Note that the SI numbers are through the 2010 season. The kicking style more likely to be returned for a touchdown is the more exciting one. A kickoff went to the house one out of every 117 times, while a punt went to the house one out of every 103 times. Of those punts, 279 were returned for touchdowns. During that same span, teams have punted 28,857 times. Of those kickoffs, 281 were returned for touchdowns. Since the NCAA moved the kickoff back to the 30-yard line in 2007, teams have kicked off 32,936 times. As Staples pointed out in the summer of 2011, there would actually be more possibility for the touchdowns that people fear would be removed from the game:
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