College football rule change is no ordinary offseason story

The college football offseason's biggest stories are annually the transfer portal, the coaching carousel, and the layout of the coming season's schedule. This year, the college football offseason has added a spicy and unexpected plot twist. USA TODAY Sports college football writer John Brice has more:

"After the NCAA’s Division I Football Bowl Subdivision Oversight Committee on March 19 adopted what the special teams community has called a “drastic rule change,” the measure that restricts player movement for “two adjacent linemen on either side of the snapper” faced objections from coaches.

"However, those objections didn't stop the NCAA football rules subcommittee from upholding the change in a call held Thursday, April 9, a person with knowledge of the vote told USA TODAY Sports. The call was held after coaches had made public their frustration with the rule change and its process.

"Six coaches familiar with the situation told USA TODAY Sports that Steve Shaw, the NCAA’s national coordinator of officials, recently held a Zoom meeting for FBS special teams coordinators that featured more than 50 coaches. The coaches requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of the subject.

"We didn’t have a chance for answers,” a current Power conference special teams coordinator from a College Football Playoff participant told USA TODAY Sports. “Some people basically were already done with spring football when this was passed. I can’t do it or teach it in the summer, because that’s cheating and then I’d get fired.”

You can read the rest of the story for more details and quotes from coaches, but here's the crazy and central part of the whole saga: The rule is almost unanimously opposed by coaches, and yet it passed. That's how messed up the whole process was. Will the rule be rescinded before the season begins? We shall see.

This article originally appeared on Trojans Wire: College football coaches are outraged about punt formation rule change