UIL will adopt new NCAA targeting rules, with one exception

FORT WORTH - The UIL is following the NCAA's lead with the adoption of stricter targeting penalties intended to prevent violent head and neck hits on defenseless players.

The NCAA recently mandated that a targeting penalty be accompanied by an automatic ejection from the game. The same rule will apply to Texas high school football players this fall.

"With reference to targeting, since it is a safety issue, there was a recommendation made that we not make an exception to the rule itself," UIL athletic director Mark Cousins said. "But we are going to litigate the penalties."

The only exception the UIL has made, Cousins said, is an ejection from a second contest. The NCAA rule provides that a player who is penalized in the second half must sit out the first half of his next game.

"The ejection rule will not carry over to the next game," Cousins said. "The targeting foul will still be called the same way, but the penalty will not carry over."

Cousins said the lack of instant replay was one of the primary reasons the second-game suspension was not included.

What defines a targeting penalty did not change in either the NCAA or UIL rules. A penalty occurs when a player initiates contact with the crown of his helmet or targets the head or neck of a defenseless player.

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