The NCAA was supposed to put the 10-second rule proposition to a vote on Thursday, but it appears that's not going to happen. Citing anonymous sources, ESPN's Chris Low Brett McMurphy and USA Today's George Schroeder reported Wednesday afternoon that the NCAA rules committee has withdrawn the proposal and will not be put to a vote. The rule has died before it could come to a vote.
More than a year of political groundwork spearheaded by Nick Saban and Bret Bielema, culminating with linking hurry-up offenses to "lung cancer" and "death certificates" has been for nought.
The rule was vocally and vehemently decried by a number of high-profile coaches, among them Mike Leach, Art Briles, Gus Malzahn, Kliff Kingsbury, Kevin Sumlin, Steve Spurrier and, most notably and hilariously, Rich Rodriguez. An ESPN survey of all 128 FBS head coaches reported that nearly 75 percent were against the rule.
In an off year for the rules committee, only rules related to player safety were able to be considered. While the 10-second rule, which would have assessed a five-yard delay of game penalty for any offense snapping the ball within the first 10 seconds of the 40-second play clock in the first 28 minutes of each half, will not be adopted, another significant rule change has been forwarded to the rule oversight panel. A tweak to the targeting rule - which would no longer automatically attach a 15-yard penalty if a targeting flag is overturned by video review - will be put to a vote.
While the first attempt has failed, the slow-down committee championed by Saban and Bielema has pushed their talking point into the national narrative (even if most of the resulting talk was weeks of negativity). Expect this rule to be thrown back into discussion again in 2015.