COMMITTEE SUGGESTS CHANGES IN RULINGS

At a meeting of the University Football Committee yesterday two improvements in the rules of the game were suggested, to be proposed to the National Committee on Rules.

In order to put a premium on scoring by straight football, rather than by dropkicks or otherwise, it was advocated that the distance between the goal posts should be narrowed from 18 feet six inches to 14 feet. The 14 feet was not set as a definite width, but merely suggested as a tentative distance.

It was also urged that a rule should be adopted making it a requirement for the goal after a touchdown to be kicked from a regular line-up, by a drop-kick or place-kick. According to this plan, the elevens would line up against each other after a touchdown, the ball would be snapped, and an attempt would be made to kick the ball over the cross-bars as if no touchdown had been made.

By this arrangement, also, the ball would be put on the 20-yard line and directly in front of the goal posts, regardless of where the touchdown had been made. Such a rule as this would obviate the difficulty of kicking the pigskin out on to the field after a touchdown, in order to get in a more advantageous position for kicking the goal. If this suggestion were put into practice it would give the team who had been scored on a better chance for blocking the goal, which means an extra point for their opponents.