The Week in News: Scheduling, More Rules and Inboxes

National Signing Day wore everyone out. That appears to be especially true for soon to be Crimson Tide linebacker Reuben Foster. Foster has been in the news quite a bit these last few weeks. First Foster signed with Alabama after getting an Auburn tattoo and then he hit the news again for a very sad story about his father. Apparently all of that wore Foster out and he is now sleeping in class.

Barry Alvarez dropped an interesting tidbit on his radio show this week when he said that the B1G has agreed to stop scheduling FCS schools in non-conference games.

"The nonconference schedule in our league is ridiculous," Alvarez said on WIBA-AM. "It's not very appealing...

"So we've made an agreement that our future games will all be Division I schools. It will not be FCS schools."

The other side of this coin is that some of these FCS programs depend on the money that their programs get for being the recipient of these FBS beat downs.

Last week the NCAA announced some new recruiting rules that allow for unlimited phone calls and texts in recruiting. This week they announced 10 proposed rule changes for actual game play. The 10 changes are listed below. Patrick Vint has some commentary on all of these proposed changes at the mothership.

• A rule to eject players who target and contact defenseless players above the shoulders.
• To clarify on blocking below the waist. Blocks from the front of this type in your typical line play are legal and anything that is from the side or back are not
• To add a 10-second runoff with less than a minute remaining in either half when the sole reason for the clock to stop is an injury.
• To establish three seconds as the minimum amount of time required to be on the game clock in order to spike the ball to stop the clock. If one or two seconds remain on the clock, there is only time for the offense to run one more play.
• To require a player that changes numbers during the game to report this to the referee, who will announce this.
• To only allow one player number to be worn by the same team and participate at the same position (e.g., two quarterbacks on the same team are not allowed to have the same number).
• To require teams to have either their jersey or pants contrast in color to the playing field.
• To allow the use of electronic communication by the on-field officiating crew after successful experimentation by the Southeastern Conference. This is not a required piece of equipment but will allow officiating crews to use this tool.
• To allow the Big 12 Conference to experiment with using an eighth official on the field in conference games. This official would be placed in the backfield opposite the referee.
• To allow instant replay to adjust the clock at the end of each quarter. Previously this provision was only in place for the end of each half.

Which of these rule changes do you like? Which don't you like?

It wouldn't be TWIN without some assorted SEC tidbits now would it? Did you all see this piece suggesting that Jadeveon Clowney should sit out 2013? That's arguably less ridiculous than this LSU inspired paint job on this Lamborghini. In Tuscaloosa Nick Saban may have received another assist in roster management from four players that appear to be in some pretty serious trouble. What else? Oh yeah, Johnny Football continues to show us all just how much he likes to party.

Fish put this up as a Fan Shot yesterday but I felt it was really worthy of another plug. Football Study Hall did this piece on the No Back Formation and Notre Dame was a big part of the discussion.

Really, the team that combined no-back frequency with effectiveness the best might have been Notre Dame. The Irish were known mostly for their defense, but even against the strong defenses listed in the above sample (Michigan State, Stanford and Alabama), they were tremendously effective from the no-back set. Quarterback Everett Golson was just 14-for-32 passing for 178 yards overall versus Michigan State, but from the no-back he was 9-for-14 for 122. (That means he was 5-for-18 for 56 otherwise.) In the first half versus USC, Golson was 7-for-13 for 115 yards from this look. Hell, even against Alabama, he was more successful in the no-back (5-for-8 for 71) than he was in other formations (16-for-28 for 199).

There has been much discussion across the web in the wake of the announced changes to recruiting rules. Over at ND Nation SEE took a look at the current "Arms Race" that includes some historical perspective.

In addition to Barry Alvarez mentioning that the B1G will no longer be playing FCS schools the B1G also appears to be planning on increasing the number of conference games from 8 to as many as 9 or 10. Subway Domer has some concerns about what this could mean for future Notre Dame schedules.

Lisa Kelly published a new "Where Are They Now" piece this week on former Notre Dame Quarterback Kevin McDougal. Despite only starting in 1993 McDougal remains one of my favorite Notre Dame players. Awesome!

Bob Elliott has been an outstanding addition to the Notre Dame coaching staff in a multitude of ways. Elliott quietly battled kidney failure throughout the 2012 season but he was the recipient of a kidney transplant from his sister this week and is recovering nicely. Elliott will remain in our thoughts and prayers throughout his recovery. Keith Arnold has more on Elliott.

Former Elliott pupil Jamoris Slaughter's career has come to an end at Notre Dame. Slaughter lost his appeal to the NCAA for a 6^th year this week. Grantland X has the scoop over at HLS.

What else?

Who is fired up about the Bengal Bouts? I know MotS is.

If for some reason you missed it this week Fish gave us a peek at Jack Swarbrick's inbox. While already well on her way, that post officially locked up her place in the OFD Hall of Fame.

Comment of the Week

Random questions bring random comments. We decided to go full on random in this week's edition of 5WF which prompted some pretty interesting discussion. In the discussion that followed windyirish went green with this comment.