Changes are coming to the college football targeting rules in 2026.
But it isn’t clear the NCAA has found a logical conclusion just yet.
For at least one season, a targeting penalty will no longer automatically take a college football player off the field for the following game.
The Division I Football Bowl Subdivision Oversight Committee on Thursday approved a one-year trial rule that ladders the punishment for each successive targeting penalty by a player.
For the 2026 season, a player disqualified for targeting for the first time in the season can participate in the following game. The trial rule will apply irrespective of the half the targeting penalty is called.
A player who draws his second targeting penalty of the season will be required to sit out the first half of the next game. A player who draws his third targeting of the season must sit out the full following game.
First implemented in 2008, the targeting rules have been controversial, and modified multiple times since.
Many Indiana fans insist the highly anticipated 2021 IU football season went off the rails because of a targeting call.
And this latest iteration of the rule would not have helped the Hoosiers.
With IU beating No. 8 Cincinnati 14-0 late in the first half, a targeting penalty was called on All-American linebacker Micah McFadden.
With McFadden ejected, Cincinnati would score 38 total points over the final 34 minutes of the game to take down IU 38-24 in front of a sold out Memorial Stadium crowd.
The Hoosiers did benefit from the rule in the national championship game, however.
Miami defensive back Xavier Lucas had to sit out the first half of the College Football Playoff National Championship game against IU because he was called for targeting in the fourth quarter of the CFP Semifinal at the Fiesta Bowl.
The McFadden and Lucas situations bring up an interesting dichotomy.
Under the new rules, why would McFadden have to sit out the remainder of the first half and all of the second, but Lucas only has to miss the remainder of the second half?
And with that interesting distinction, will we see more targeting late in games, when the risk/reward just might be worth it? Stay tuned on that.
Indiana had two players flagged for targeting in a 2024 game at UCLA, one on D’Angelo Ponds, and another on C.J. West. Ponds missed the first half of the following game, while the foul on West was later rescinded by the Big Ten.
“I think there needs to be a balance there and common sense and intent, also,” IU coach Curt Cignetti said of the targeting calls last year after the UCLA game. “We’re not going to change the way we play. I don’t think there was anything dirty out there, that’s for sure.”
In that same UCLA game, IU linebacker Aiden Fisher took a helmet-to-helmet hit after intercepting a pass.
Defensive coordinator Bryant Haines famously said he was glad no targeting was called on that play.
“We’ll get up and laugh,” Haines said. “That said, let’s be consistent— Let us BANG too!”
For complete coverage of IU football, GO HERE.
The Daily Hoosier –“Where Indiana fans assemble when they’re not at Assembly”
- You can follow us on X: @daily_hoosier and find us on Facebook and Instagram
- Seven ways to support completely free IU coverage at no cost to you.
