FEW CHANGES IN FOOTBALL RULES FOR NEXT SEASON

The annual meeting of the Intercollegiate Football Rules Committee held last Friday and Saturday was marked by a conservative attitude toward new propositions. Confronted with a larger variety of proposed changes than in any year since 1916, the Committee after careful deliberation accepted none, and devoted itself entirely to clarification of the existing rules by means of minor changes and recommendations.

The most important new departure came after the work on the actual rules themselves had been completed and consisted of a recommendation that after the coming season any man who officiates in a professional game be dropped from the approved list of intercollegiate officials. This action is aimed at professional football to which the Committee expressed itself as strongly opposed.

The most important change in the rules themselves was adopted for the convenience of the spectator and differentiates clearly between a safety and a touchback. According to the new ruling the ball will be brought out to the 30 yard line after a safety instead of to the 20-yard line as formerly.

Two other minor changes consisted of ruling that a foul made on the same play as a touchdown but after the ball has crossed the goal line shall be penalized by loss of 15 yards on the next play not by failure to count the touchdown, and that a ball striking an official is not dead.

The Committee considered but took no action on the elimination of the goal after touchdown as recommended by many coaches and students. It also considered the suggestion advanced by P. D. Haughton '99 that a forward pass blocked behind the line of scrimmage should be considered a free ball, but failed to adopt it. The question of preventing stalling by a change in the method of timing, which was discussed so energetically last year, did not receive much attention nor did any of the proposals as to overtime periods in case of a tie or goals after touchdown kicked from scrimmage.

Officials were instructed not to warn players against illegality in substitution or formation except in the case of natural tendency to get offside and the rule against clipping was made more stringent. A recommendation that all colleges number their players was not acted upon, the Committee maintaining that was a matter for each college to decide.