Every year, college football brings forth a number of rule changes and points of emphasis as we head into each fall.
Today, the National Football Foundation along with Rogers Redding (the national coordinator of college football officiating) shared a press release highlighting reminders of the rule changes taking place for the 2017 season. Each of these comes into effect after being approved earlier this year by the Playing Rules Oversight Panel.
Officially, 2017 was an "off year" for major changes, so the committee was only able to make limited changes that had a "direct impact" on player safety.
Among the changes are; the nameplate, along with the inside collar of the jersey and shoulder pads are all illegal places to be grabbed to pull a defender to the ground; defensive players are no longer allowed to leap or hurdle through the neutral zone in an attempt to block PATs or field goals.
One other change being talked about now, but isn't being fully implemented until 2018, due to the fact that teams had already ordered equipment for the year, is that players must wear pants and knee pads that cover their knees.
See more reminders from the release here, including some discussion on the new point of emphasis on game length.