This article describes teams passing late in the RPO when OL are more than the allowed 3 yards downfield & that rules violation not being called sufficiently. Gives O illegal advantage in passing. With it not being called & even with CFB OL legally being as far as 3 yards downfield, it's changing O's, even AL's, to exploit the allowance. Unless the distance allowed downfield is reduced or it's happening strictly called, anything but RPO will become more & more extinct. The difference between 1 yard downfield allowance in the NFL & 3 yards in CFB in large part explains why RPO is much common in CFB. I wasn't aware of this difference till now.
"The most devastating play in college football combines the game’s most effective offensive schemes to produce something even more potent. It’s a play that upends years of football orthodoxy and only exists because of a polarizing rule change that has been slowly tearing the sport apart."
"Those three letters explain why Alabama coach Nick Saban reluctantly overhauled his offense and had to retool his defense this season. They also explain why Clemson is playing for the title for the second consecutive year.
The only problem with the RPO is also the reason it’s so unstoppable: It may break the rules of football. And the increasing reliance on this system across the sport has NCAA referees scrambling to officiate properly,..."
"In recent seasons—and especially this year—college coaches realized that an obscure rule change had paved the way for them to replace the pitch with something more efficient: a pass."
"The RPO has changed the way football is played because it destroys the ages-old division between passing plays and running plays....By rule, downfield blockers signal a running play, and defenders can stop worrying about a pass once they see 300-pound offensive linemen barreling at them.,,, Now, they don’t know what to do when they see that stampede of blockers while the ball-carrier can still throw to receivers—a huge advantage for the offense."
"RPO critics say this type of play is effective not only because it tricks the defense, but also because it capitalizes on the referees’ difficulty penalizing linemen who are farther than three yards downfield when a run turns into a pass. The NCAA made the rule a point of emphasis this season, and that only revealed how often these calls were missed: ineligible-receiver-downfield penalties were flagged 90% more in 2016 than 2014, according to Stats LLC. RPOs entered the mainstream because of a 2009 rule change that allowed linemen to block three yards downfield on a pass."
"In response, the NCAA nearly changed the rule before this season to one yard, the same as the NFL."
http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-mos...x_picks&cx_tag=poptarget&cx_artPos=1#cxrecs_s
"The most devastating play in college football combines the game’s most effective offensive schemes to produce something even more potent. It’s a play that upends years of football orthodoxy and only exists because of a polarizing rule change that has been slowly tearing the sport apart."
"Those three letters explain why Alabama coach Nick Saban reluctantly overhauled his offense and had to retool his defense this season. They also explain why Clemson is playing for the title for the second consecutive year.
The only problem with the RPO is also the reason it’s so unstoppable: It may break the rules of football. And the increasing reliance on this system across the sport has NCAA referees scrambling to officiate properly,..."
"In recent seasons—and especially this year—college coaches realized that an obscure rule change had paved the way for them to replace the pitch with something more efficient: a pass."
"The RPO has changed the way football is played because it destroys the ages-old division between passing plays and running plays....By rule, downfield blockers signal a running play, and defenders can stop worrying about a pass once they see 300-pound offensive linemen barreling at them.,,, Now, they don’t know what to do when they see that stampede of blockers while the ball-carrier can still throw to receivers—a huge advantage for the offense."
"RPO critics say this type of play is effective not only because it tricks the defense, but also because it capitalizes on the referees’ difficulty penalizing linemen who are farther than three yards downfield when a run turns into a pass. The NCAA made the rule a point of emphasis this season, and that only revealed how often these calls were missed: ineligible-receiver-downfield penalties were flagged 90% more in 2016 than 2014, according to Stats LLC. RPOs entered the mainstream because of a 2009 rule change that allowed linemen to block three yards downfield on a pass."
"In response, the NCAA nearly changed the rule before this season to one yard, the same as the NFL."
http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-mos...x_picks&cx_tag=poptarget&cx_artPos=1#cxrecs_s
