The New Facemask Rule

Although the Football Rules Committee's tinkering with clock rules received most of the attention last week, there was a surprising adjustment to the facemask penalty for 2008.

Gone is the five-yard penalty for an incidental grabbing of the facemask. Only a 15-yard penalty remains and although the exact wording of the new rule has yet to be released, it appears a facemask penalty will be called only when there is a pulling, twisting or turning of the head.

Deciding between a five and 15-yard penalty was often a judgment call and the new rule eliminates a gray area for officials. But how many facemask penalties could this involve? Marty at cfbstats.com, the ultimate site for college football stats junkies, was able to give us a look at facemask penalties the past three seasons. The data is graphically displayed above, but the season-by-season breakdown and totals go like this:

• In 2005, there were 188 five-yard facemask penalties (51.4%) called and 178 15 yarders (48.6%).
• In 2006, there were 198 five yarders (56.3%) and 154 15 yarders (43.7%).
• In 2007, there were 177 five yarders (50.3%) and 175 15 yarders (49.7%).
• Three-season totals: 1070 facemask penalties called, 563 (52.6%) were five yarders and 507 were 15 yarders (47.4%).
  

Using these numbers as a guideline, the expected number of facemask penalties will be reduced by more than 50% in 2008. But total penalty yards will also increase. Using 2007 as an example, Marty says 1770 more penalty yards would have been called in the 792 games that were played. Although on average that is only 2.23 extra penalty yards a game, there will be some games that get rather chippy and an extra facemask penalty or two could make a big impact.