OPINION

By Dave Curtis

updated 4:24 p.m. ET Feb. 16, 2009

A story last week brought Jake Locker to mind. It seems the fellas who supervise college football's rules are serious about the NCAA standing for "No Celebratory Acts Allowed." They're considering rules to further define unsportsmanlike conduct. Apparently they've learned nothing from what happened to Locker, Washington's dynamo quarterback, last September 6.

Remember our guy flipping the ball 20 feet in the air after scoring on UW's final offensive play to pull his team within an extra point of tying the game? Remember the 15-yard penalty that pushed back the extra point, which BYU blocked, giving the Cougars a 28-27 victory? How about the reactions of the two schools' athletic directors?

"It was a great call," BYU's Tom Holmoe said. "But I didn't like the call. It was spontaneous. But it's stated in the book. If you throw the ball in the air, it's a penalty."

Said Washington AD Scott Woodward: "It was absurd. Everyone knows it's absurd. There needs to be common sense used in those situations."

Those comments, made by phone last week, echoed the objections from fans nationwide five months ago. The reason for the flag made the outcry even stronger. See, the penalty came because the rules committee mandated it.

New rules instituted last season tried to split celebrations into OK and illegal. They robbed on-field officials of judgment, of interpretation, of -- as Woodward said -- common sense. The leeway remained for pass interference and holding and other, far more significant calls. Officials are guided yet trusted in such situations, like baseball umps calling balls and strikes or basketball refs determining blocks and charges. But telling the difference between football and "So You Think You Can Dance"? Got to remove the wiggle room there.

Locker-gate became the most discussed player celebration penalty of 2008. A year earlier, that label went to Georgia's team-wide end zone mosh pit after its first touchdown against Florida. The officials, with far less specific guidelines for celebrations, handled that one fine, flagging the Dawgs for a pair of unsportsmanlike conduct penalties. The postgame outcry was focused on the guys who masterminded the antics, not the ones who marched the ball back 23 yards before the kickoff.

Yet Mike Bellotti, the rules committee chair and Oregon's head coach, said his peers need to consider adding a couple of pages to the NCAA rulebook. His body's newest recommendation, which wouldn't take effect until at least 2011, involves making some celebration penalties live-ball fouls. An example? An offensive player on a long touchdown run turns his head at the five-yard line and taunts a trailing defender. Instead of a penalty on the extra point or kickoff, the touchdown wouldn't count, and the 15 yards would be enforced from the spot of the taunt.
"We're going to poll coaches at all levels and find out if there's any support for that," said Bellotti, who called the potential change "a very dramatic statement".

The wording of the rule sounds fine, and it would indeed be a dramatic statement. But the underlying philosophy is still shaky. It seemed that more rules would help solve the problem of poor sportsmanship. However, the folks at BYU and Washington would say they've only caused more problems.

Holmoe recounted an episode from last year's BYU-Colorado State game. With the Dolphins and Broncos playing in Denver the next day, Miami linebacker Joey Porter (a CSU grad) and quarterback John Beck (a rookie from BYU) drove to Fort Collins and watched from behind an end zone. After Gartrell Johnson put the Rams ahead with a fourth-quarter touchdown, he leaped and chest-bumped Porter, who had danced into the end zone in celebration. Out came the hankie and a 15-yard penalty.

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"Beck was dying, laughing," Holmoe said. "It was spontaneous. But they went from trying to determine what was excessive to saying these guys can't do anything."

Maybe the chest bump deserved a flag. Maybe not. But the NCAA says interacting with spectators is a penalty. So out came the flag, late in another nip-and-tuck game. And to deal with this issue, the rules committee wants to do more.

Step away, fellas. Do less. Stop making rules that aren't necessary, and let the officials police the Chad Johnson wannabes. More rules mean more punishments for innocents like Locker. More common sense, and more trust for the striped shirts on the field, is the way to go.

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