If you have been following assorted major conference media days there have been a couple themes that have come up at each one from the conference level. One of them is the new penalties and mechanisms for review of targeting penalties.

The new penalties were announced back in March, but the details were still being worked out.

The NCAA on Thursday announced that the playing rules oversight panel approved a new rule that would allow officials to eject players who target and contact defenseless players above the shoulders, effective for the 2013 season.

The ejection would be in addition to the existing 15-yard penalty.

Under Wednesday’s decision, players would be ejected for the remainder of the game if the penalty occurs in the first half. If the foul occurs in the second half or overtime, the player is ejected for the remainder of the game and the first half of the next contest. The ejection portion of the penalty can be subject to a video review.

Officiating crews for every conference have been getting instructed on this, along with the video review. Now the media (and some coaches) are getting their information.

Here are the basics:

[Walt] Anderson, the Big 12’s coordinator of officials, attempted to clarify the new targeting rules that are being implemented into college football. As part of the new rules, officials have the discretion to eject players that are whistled for “targeting,” a word that encompasses a handful of movements and football plays.

“What we’re really trying to do,” Anderson said, “is change certain types of behavior out on the football field to the extent possible with a contact sport and avoid unnecessary hits to the head.’’

Anderson said officials have been taught to view targeting in four categories:

• A “launch,” where players leave their feet and move upwards toward an offensive player.

• A “thrust,” which is similar but does not involve a player leaving his feet.

• A “strike,” where a player uses his forearm or shoulder to intentionally deliver a blow to the head.

• And a “crown-of-the-helmet hit,” where a player lowers his head and uses his helmet to deliver a blow.

The push for stricter rules has intensified in recent years as research and studies into concussions have shown the potential dangers and long-term risks of head injuries.

The devil is in the details of the enforcement. Naturally coaches are wary of the rule change. Some of their problems with the rule as it is set to be implemented are legit.

ACC officiating coordinator Doug Rhoads on Monday explained an ejection is subject to review and can be overturned with indisputable evidence.

ACC coaches gave input to the American Football Coaches Association, but really they have no choice but to adapt to the new rules. Last season, a league office had the discretion to review the video of a hit after the game and suspend a player for the next game if it saw fit.

Officials will emphasize player safety, and the long-term health of the game depends in part on following hard-line rules.

Coaches are fine with that but are concerned with players getting wrongfully ejected when officials have limited time to review a play and make a call on the field.

As Miami’s Al Golden says, there’s no reset button on this.

“You need time to really look at the intent of what the kid did, the gravity of it, all those things to me should be part of whether or not it was just accidental or clearly was targeted,” Golden said. “I would be much more comfortable leaving it up to the conferences. Penalize the kid as you see it on game day, then leave it up to the conference to go back and review it.”

You could argue intent is irrelevant if safety is only issue, but coaches point to other factors, such as a player making a textbook tackle when an offensive player “lowers his center of gravity at the last second and there’s incidental contact, and now you’re getting thrown out,” Swinney said.

Or simply size difference.

ACC officiating coordinator Doug Rhoads and former NFL officiating supervisor Mike Pereira said they would have ejected South Carolina defensive end Jadeveon Clowney for his famous hit in the Outback Bowl last season. Clowney disagrees with the rule, saying there are unintended defensive hits to the head of an offensive player.

“I’m 6-6, and half the guys I’m going against are 6-3, 6-foot,” Clowney said. “It’s going to be hard for me to get low, not to hit them above the shoulders.”

Kentucky running back Raymond Sanders, who supports the rule, can relate to Clowney’s concern for defensive players.

“I’m a short guy, but some guys are 6-3, 6-4 and maybe accidentally hit me at my head,” Sanders said. “It’s going to be tough. It’s just making the game safer, so you have to look at it that way.”

Lots of legitimate and real concerns. Complain about it wimping the game. Watering it down. Any euphemism you choose, but there are real reasons this is happening.

In 1905, 18 players died playing college football. President Teddy Roosevelt summoned campus leaders to the White House to forge change. The resulting rules produced the modern game.

A century later, no one is dying on the field, but as more and more data emerges concerning head injuries, as more former players get punch-drunk or commit suicide, the same fix-the-game-or-else theme is bubbling.

“We’ll either change it within the system, or someone from without the system will change it,” Anderson told his officials. “That’s the charge we’ve got.

“The game is under attack. The (conference) commissioners are aware of this. The coaches. The administrators. We’ve now been given a directive by the rules committee. That’s to send a message, this is serious. We need to get this out of the game.”

And yes, financial.

The bottom line is this rule change, and the reason people like [SEC Supervisor of Officials Steve]  Shaw believe it’s so significant, is bigger and more important than any single player, any single game, or any single season. With a class-action law suit on concussions against the NFL working its way through the court system, college football officials know they have to be proactive on this subject. Someday they may have to sit in a court of law and be asked the following question: “Did you do everything you could to make the game as safe as possible?”

The answer to that question had better be yes.

Here’s the other thing, the targeting rules have been on the books for more than 5 years. The fifteen yard penalty and possible suspension for the next game after a conference review did nothing to change the behavior. This is about changing what coaches are doing in practice.

The reason why there has been little impact, officials are convinced, is that coaches are still condoning — if not teaching — players to deliver those blows. So this past spring, the NCAA upped the ante by calling for immediate ejections any time a defender targets a defenseless receiver or strikes someone with the crown of his helmet.

No warnings. No three strikes you’re out.

Immediate ejections. Every time.

While that certainly seems harsh, there is good reason to believe the strategy will work. Rhoads pointed to a number of other infractions — clipping, horse-collar tackles, fighting and excessive celebrations — that have decreased dramatically because coaches have been vigilant about making their players stop.

In more than 800 FBS games last season, Rhoads said, there were only two fights during games. And only six players were flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct because of excessive celebrations.

The players might not have adjusted to those rules overnight, but they certainly have come around. And if they can conform when it comes to these player-safety rules, we all will be better off. While violent collisions are very much a part of football, everyone also recognizes that concussions are a clear and present danger — to the athletes and the entire sport.

This is why the rule is so harsh. Not simply because of the danger to the players in the long term (or short). It is about behavior modification. Go back to what every officiating director is saying [taken from the prior articles linked].

“What we’re really trying to do,” Anderson said, “is change certain types of behavior out on the football field…”

Rhoads pointed to a number of other infractions — clipping, horse-collar tackles, fighting and excessive celebrations — that have decreased dramatically because coaches have been vigilant about making their players stop.

“Playing time is a motivator to our players and we think will have a pretty significant impact,” said Shaw. “What I hope with this is that this gets through to the players, they change their behavior.”

This will be messy. Players will get ejected at key times. For key games. Some will be completely wrong. Brace yourself.