2008 NCAA College Football Season bans Horse-Collar Tackle (among the other rules they changed...)

And yes, these guys sure changed a lot for the coming season.

The 2008 NCAA college football season is upon us, giving college football programs a fresh start after successful or pathetic or even utterly miserable campaigns only teams from Miami can pull off.

And it certainly looks like the league is looking at it fresh as well, coming up with new rules that aims to give its fans a better brand of football that can compete or even surpass the professional atmosphere NFL football brings every week.

One of the new rules that stands out is the banishment of horse-collar tackles for the coming season. Following the NFL's lead and acting on the proposal by its Football Rules Committee (FRC) the NCAA will slap a penalty this season for horse-collar tackles.

Just what is a horse-collar tackle anyway? A horse-collar tackle happens when a player is yanked down to the ground from the inside collar of his shoulder pads or jersey. Banning these kinds of tackles will help football players to lessen the tendencies of suffering nasty back injuries.

''What we're hearing from trainers and physicians is we're getting some back injuries when the ball carrier is immediately snapped to the ground by being jerked quickly,'' Rogers Redding, NCAA football secretary-rules editor and coordinator of football officials for the Southeastern Conference (SEC), said.

''If the ball carrier is grabbed by the shoulder or jersey and just ridden to the ground over a couple of yards, that's not going to be a foul.''

Other changes include a clarification of rules on chop blocks or tackling a player below the knees. A chop block is now defined as any high-low combination block by any two players against an opponent other than the runner, anywhere on the field, anytime in the game and with or without delay between the hits.

The league will also implement a 40-second play clock that will start as soon as the ball is ruled dead from the 25-second clock they were using in the past that begins only on the game official's signal.

Who will win the 2009 BCS national championship? Bodog sportsbook has the odds.

LSU Tigers 13.00

Ohio State Buckeyes 7.00

Oklahoma Sooners 7.00

USC Trojans 4.00

Want more odds? Visit Bodog sportsbook for more college football betting odds and the best betting lines on some of today's biggest sporting events.

2008 NCAA College Football Horse-Collar Tackle