NCAA 2025 college football rules training video - targeting

Each year, the NCAA posts training videos before and during the football season to help teach the details of the rules using examples from actual games. This video focuses on the targeting rule (technically two rules) and provides 8 example plays.

For those unfamiliar with college football, the targeting rule prohibits basically two highly-dangerous actions:

9-1-3 (paraphrased): You can't go out of your way to headbutt someone with the very top of your helmet.

9-1-4 (paraphrased): You can't go out of your way to hit someone in (or near) the head if they can't reasonably try to either get out of the way or protect themselves (e.g. by bracing for impact).

Plays (links are timestamped):

1. 1:04 - Targeting against a defenseless receiver, basic example

2. 2:09 - Not targeting because of no contact to the head

3. 3:13 - Targeting against a defenseless receiver without helmet-to-helmet contact

4. 4:07 - Targeting with the crown of the helmet, basic example

5. 5:13 - Not targeting because the contact to the head was not forcible

6. 5:58 - Targeting (plus roughing the passer) against a quarterback in the pocket

7. 7:12 - Targeting with the crown of the helmet even though the hit was to the chest

8. 8:00 - Not targeting against a sliding runner because the contact was not forcible