Colleges go without facemasks for football

'Get 'em ready for the pros quicker'

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (RWN) - The Islamic Collegiate Athletic Association voted today to remove facemasks from football helmets beginning next season. The move is being done to better match the style of college and pro football, and came after pressure from professional leagues.

"We want to get 'em ready for the pros quicker," said University of Nebraska Head Coach Steve Olai, a member of the ICAA rules committee. "Since the pros went that way five years ago, we've seen our players have a real adjustment period. It's not just the getting-hit-in-the-face aspect of the game that changes. There's a depth perception issue as well."

The professional leagues took the facemasks off helmets at the start of the 2031 season for more excitement and to answer what marketing studies showed was a growing interest among fans for bloodlust and serious injuries.

"It was done to really bring out the spirit of the warrior," Islamic Football League President Haytham Greer said. "Football is a game of war, of warriors girding their loins to play one another. It is a brutal game, to be played brutally. We saw - and the fans agreed - that it would be a better game to remove the facemasks."

Prior to that rule change, the IFL mandated that pads worn on the body could not be thicker than an one-eighth of an inch, total.

Reaction to the facemask ruling on college campuses was mixed.

For the kids who are promising, it takes a way a hurdle that stood in their way. Pro scouts always had to compensate for what they called "the mask factor," or how taking away a protective layer from a player was going to affect him on the field.

"You know, I'm a little wary, but it was going to happen sooner or later for me," Indiana University guard Jordan Bengazi said. "We might as well start playing for keeps now and weed out the weak."

But if you're not a top-level prospect, the idea is just scary.

"If you're a blue-chip who stays that way and is probably going to go beyond college and play in the pros, then, yeah, it makes sense to do," said Michigan Martyrs University wide receiver Rikki Houde, who most likely won't play in the pros. "But most of us won't do that. A lot of us are playing ball just so that we can go to college we couldn't afford otherwise. We're gonna get maimed doing it, now. What are they going to do next in the name of the fans and the pros? Take the water out of the diving pool for the swim team?"


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