USD Football 1995

duty, playing both offense and defense. In 2009, the rules committee solidified this trend toward one-pla- toon football by permitting unlimited substitution only during team timeouts and between quarters. At other Limes, coaches could send in only one replacement, and then only after a change of possession (usually a quarter-

"G ood afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to

today'sgame. I'd like to take a moment before kickoff to introduce the senior starters who will be playing at homefor the last time. First,the quarterback Bill McDowell, a three-year starter who will graduate next spring with a degree in genetic engineering ... " Say what? The starting quarterbackat a major college program, and he's about to graduate with a degree in an intensely technical and time-consuming major such as genetic engineering' Is this 1995, or have we been tossed back 50 years? In fact, we've been thrown forward. The year is 2020 and college football has changed drastically in the intervening 2 1/2 decades, though not the game itself so much. Rules were tinkered with inces- santly from the late 1940s until the early 1990s. For the most part, the game evolved into a pleasing mix of offense, defense and entertainment "Why change what's working?" asked CAA football rules-book editor John Adams before the start of the 1995 sea- son. "The coaches are happy, the players are happy and the spectators are happy. I don't foresee much difference in the rules over the next 20 to 25 years unless

back for a defensive back, or viceversa). Those skinny guys with funny shoes went the way of cheap gas. Kicking chores were turned over to tight ends and line- backers. But none of this explains why a start· ing quarterback is about lo graduate with a degree in genetic engineering. This has to do with the 2010 season, when 112 underclassmen skipped to the NFL. College presidents and athletic directors were incensed. The schools had coddled, nurtured and subsidized these players for three, and sometimes four years, only to have them succumb to the lure of big bucksj ust as they were reaching the peak of their game. In a rare moment of unanimity, the college football community told the NFL that it would have to begin paying colleges for running what was essentially a farm system. From now on, the schools would charge $500,000 and up for each drafted player or any free agent invited to a preseason camp. The NFL ignored the threat until a Midwestern school filed suit the follow- ing year. A jury proclaimed that half a CONT INUED

BY TOM SLEAR

WE INTO THENEXTCENTURY, ITPROMISES TO BE A WHOLE NEW BALL GAME there is a tremendous decrease in offense or a rash of injuries." T he offenses have kept scoring and the number of injuries have actually decreased (more on that later), so Adams' prediction has proven accurate with one exception. Because of the dic- tates of gender equity during the first decade of the new century, colleges were forced to cut football rosters drasti- cally Even perennial top-25 teams reduced the number ofscholarship play- ers to 40 or so. Amidst these depleted ranks, the more talented players pulled double