The NFL’s new rules will make the league look very different going into the 2024 season, and the NCAA could consider adopting some of them to help improve college football as a whole. 
Let’s review the three significant rule changes the NFL made during the offseason and consider whether the NCAA would be interested in making any of the same changes.
The new dynamic kickoff
Some fans may be confused within the first seconds of tuning into next Thursday’s NFL kickoff clash between the Baltimore Ravens and Kansas City Chiefs.
Over the offseason, the NFL completely changed the rules behind its kickoff, taking inspiration from the revived XFL’s exotic kickoff, first introduced to the football world in 2020. It’s the most drastic change that the league has made to the kickoff in its over century-long existence.
But what exactly will it look like? Let’s start with the alignment.
With the NFL’s new dynamic kickoff, the ball is kicked from the kicking team’s 35-yard line, with the other ten players lined up with one foot on the opposing team’s 40-yard line. The receiving team now has a “setup zone” – a five-yard area between their 30 and 35-yard lines where at least nine players must line up, and seven must have their foot on the 35.
Now, the kicker must kick the ball between the opposing side’s goal line and its 20-yard line, also known as the “landing zone.” The receiving team must return any kick in the landing zone unless it bounces into the end zone for a touchback, which would make the ball be placed at the 20-yard line.
If the ball is kicked into the end zone, the receiving team can return the kick or take the ball at the 30-yard line for a touchback. If the kick goes short of the landing zone, it is treated as how past kickoffs that landed out-of-bounds were, with the receiving team starting their offensive drive at their 40-yard line.
Did you get all that? Good.
So, what exactly is the NFL trying to do with this new, somewhat overcomplicated kickoff?
The NFL aims to incentivize more kickoff returns while reducing injuries on the sport’s most dangerous play.
Around 30% of all torn ACLs are on special teams plays, the league says, while they only represent about 17% of all gridiron action. The NFL’s old kickoff was unreasonably dangerous compared to any other play in football, and it was time for the league to act now before it was too late.
But in 2023, the NFL let the receiving team fair catch the ball no matter where it landed, with the ball automatically being downed for a touchback at the 25-yard line. Only 22% of kickoffs were returned in 2023.
The league was forced to return to the drawing board or let the kickoff go extinct.
“I do think we all share, the health and safety side and the committee, a desire to take what is now with a 22% return rate, what is now a very infrequent return and turn that into a more exciting play,” said Jeff Miller, the NFL’s executive vice president overseeing health and safety.
“We believe that you can increase the return rate substantially and not increase the risk beyond that found on your typical rush or pass play. And so, we need to design something to do that. I think we share the same perspective as the committee, which is to say that’s the goal. And we want to make that an exciting, fun play because kickoffs can be, and yet extract the pieces of that play that provide the most risk.”
So far, the league’s efforts have done just that.
With both teams lining up only five yards away, the running start and impact of the NFL’s old injury-ridden kickoff are removed, naturally decreasing the number of injuries over time.
And with the discrepancy between the touchback yard lines depending on where the ball lands, kicking teams are kicking more into the field of play, leading to more returns. 
On Thursday morning, Miller continued his press tour, fielding questions from reporters on a conference call regarding the brand-new NFL kickoff. Miller said that 70% of kickoffs were returned in this month’s NFL preseason, a staggering increase from the 2023 season’s 22%. 
While we’re still waiting to see how the new dynamic kickoff plays out in the regular season, its first test run is off to a good start. So, with the NFL’s new kickoff looking like the best of both worlds, the next question is this: Should the NCAA follow suit?
“They know what they want,” Georgia head coach and member of the NCAA rules committee Kirby Smart told reporters about the NFL’s new kickoff. “They know what they’re trying to do. And they’re going to get it right. And then hopefully we can look into it ourselves, if the kickoff is not part of our game.”
While no official talks have started yet if things continue to go in the right direction for the NFL, expect the NCAA to act as soon as next season and implement the new dynamic kickoff for the 2025 college football season.
The Verdict: The old, archaic kickoff has its flaws. It’s time for a change.
Banning the hip-drop tackle 
2023 was a rough year for injuries in the NFL. Some of the league’s biggest stars were out for extended periods of the season due to injuries, bringing to light a hazardous defensive technique: the hip-drop tackle.
A hip-drop swivel tackle occurs when a defender grabs a ball carrier and rotates his hips, unweighting himself and dropping onto the offensive player’s hip or lower body.
The hip-drop tackle has been notorious for causing lower-body injuries to several NFL stars over the past several years. In the offseason, the Competition Committee unanimously banned the technique going into 2024. Now, it results in a 15-yard defensive penalty, and the players don’t support the change one bit.
“The players oppose any attempt by the NFL to implement a rule prohibiting a ‘swivel hip-drop’ tackle,” a statement from the NFLPA statement read. “While the NFLPA remains committed to improvements to our game with health and safety in mind, we cannot support a rule change that causes confusion for us as players, for coaches, for officials and especially, for fans. We call on the NFL, again, to reconsider implementing this rule.”
NFL players have the right to be mad; the difference between banning the horse-collar tackle and the hip-drop tackle is entirely different. 
There is a clear description of what constitutes an illegal tackle for horse-collar tackles: if a ball carrier is grabbed and brought down by the back collar or the back inside of the player’s jersey. The same can’t be said for the hip-drop, as they are much harder to spot in real-time.
The difference between a typical, legal tackle and an illegal hip-drop tackle is so minute that officials were told not to call penalties on them during this year’s preseason, as the new rules state that the signs of the technique being used must be clear.
For the calls officials missed, the game crew would later approach players and issue warnings and education; some were even fined.
With how ill-defined the verbiage behind the hip-drop tackle is, it’s hard to encourage the NCAA to ban the technique until the NFL irons out the kinks in the verbiage and definition of the rule.
The Verdict: While player safety is critical, defenders are running out of ways to bring down ball carriers legally. The NCAA should let the NFL test this one out first.
Retiring the chain gang
When the USFL returned in 2021, Fox Sports introduced some groundbreaking technology that we had never seen before on a football field.
In collaboration with startup tracking company Bolt6, the USFL used a combination of in-stadium cameras, sensors, and tracking chips in the footballs to measure precisely where the ball should be spotted on the field.
On a close 3rd or 4th and short, the USFL’s Replay Center would get the data. A digital representation of the official, computer-tracked marking would show up on the scoreboard, telling the fans, teams and officials if the ball was short or past the line to gain, with no chain gang necessary.
“We, too, would like to get away from the chains,” said NFL EVP of Football Operations Troy Vincent in February of 2022. “Really, like, we would like to get away.”
In 2024, the league got its first taste of “getting away,” somewhat.
During this preseason, the NFL tested the technology, rigging all 32 team’s stadiums with the necessary technology to allow the digital first-down chain to be used as the official ruling during August’s exhibition games. The chain gang was still present on the field for every NFL preseason game, but the NFL replay center’s data made the final call on 3rd and 4th and shorts.
Miller further discussed the matter during his Thursday morning conference call with reporters.
“I think that’s still an idea whose time is coming,” Miller said. “After consideration, it’s not ready yet.”
While the first-down optical tracking system isn’t perfect, the technology will only improve annually. It seems unlikely that the NCAA would adopt this change, just based on the scale of rigging every college stadium in the country with state-of-the-art cameras and sensors.
Expect the digital first-down chain to be the future of the sport, but don’t expect the NCAA to consider adopting this kind of technology until the NFL has at least one successful campaign under its belt.
The chain gang lives on for now.
The Verdict: With the NFL backing out late and too many NCAA stadiums that would need the funding and technology installed in stadiums nationwide, we are still a ways away from the chain gang being a thing of the past.