Big 12 notes: officials will keep a close eye on downfield blocking this season

DALLAS – College football ushered in few rules changes during the offseason, allowing officials to spend more time mastering their craft and less time learning new techniques during summer meetings.

Walt Anderson thinks that will help officials when they return to the field for games this season. One area the Big 12 officials supervisor expects the most improvement is in determining when an offensive lineman is, or isn’t, illegally blocking downfield.

“The difficulty, in terms of officiating this play, is because the college game has become so spread out, so complex, so fast,” Anderson said. “There’s so many things going on.”

Last season, Anderson said Tuesday at Big 12 media day, officials allowed offensive linemen to illegally block downfield too often. He cited Kansas State’s victory at Oklahoma as a prime example, showing several clips of missed calls.

Oklahoma coaches openly criticized officials afterward, and Anderson admitted the officials had a bad day.

NCAA rules allow offensive linemen to block three yards beyond the line of scrimmage before the ball is thrown on a passing play. They are allowed to advance upfield and continue blocking after a pass occurs, but not before.

Judging when a ball is thrown, as opposed to when it’s caught, can be difficult watching games live.

With the emergence of new offensive packages, such as the pop-pass, in which a quarterback fakes a handoff and studies the defense for several seconds before deciding whether to keep the ball for a run or throw it, officials have to keep an eye on blockers.

K-State and Auburn regularly use the pop-pass, and Oklahoma has used it as well.

Ideally, Anderson said, officials would be able to use replays to determine when a foul has been committed, but that is unlikely to happen in a sport that can already lack flow.

“The rule is what the rule is,” Anderson said. “We are going to have to do a better job officiating it.”

New to replay – This season, it will be more important for an official to explain when a tipped ball negates the possibility of a penalty. Anderson said anytime an official signals or tells the crowd that a punt was blocked or a pass was tipped, making penalties such as roughing the kicker and pass interference moot, replay can then be used to determine whether the ball was in fact tipped.

In that past, that has not been a reviewable play. And it will continue to not be reviewable if an official fails to signal that a ball was tipped.

Value vs. risk – Bill Hancock, executive director of the College Football Playoff, was asked if playing in the Big Ten championship game helped Ohio State reach the playoff, while Baylor and TCU were left out with similar resumes.

He was essentially, being asked if the Big 12 should would be smart to bring back its championship game.

“There’s no question that Ohio State benefitted from getting a chance to play another game against a quality opponent,” Hancock said. “It enhanced their resume. However, you have to remember the risk of conference championship games, and we’ve talked about this, a lot of us have, if two of those games had come out differently, the Big 12 could have had two teams in the playoff and they would have looked like a roomful of geniuses.”

Attendance surprise – Iowa State coach Paul Rhoads was proud to announce that Jack Trice Stadium will grow in capacity this season to 61,000. That number makes Iowa State’s football stadium the third-largest in the Big 12, behind Oklahoma and Texas.

“We look forward to welcoming you up there this fall,” he said.

This story was originally published July 21, 2015 at 2:56 PM with the headline "Big 12 notes: officials will keep a close eye on downfield blocking this season."