Last week the NCAA came out with its own version of “The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly” when it announced three new rule changes in college football.

The Good: Spot fouls for taunting, meaning loss of a touchdown if a player taunts the other team before scoring.

The Bad: The abolition of the wedge block on kick returns.

The Ugly: No more words or numbers on eye black.

I know many people disagree with me, but I love the new rule that takes away a score if you taunt your opponent on the way to the end zone.

After seeing USC taunt its opponents on seemingly every touchdown for a decade, it makes me happy to see harsher penalties for schools that think they can do anything they want.

That’s right, the days of Desmond Reed flipping into the end zone and getting a 15-yard penalty on the kickoff are over. Instead, it is a loss of a touchdown and added incentive for the defense to get a stop.

But the only problem I could see is the rule is a judgment call. Referees could have too much power in determining the outcome. If the taunting term was more outlined, this rule would work perfectly.

The other odd thing is this rule will not be in effect until the 2011 season.

But all in all, I like the idea of a more severe punishment for acting like an ass.

Onto the bad: The wedge.

I understand why this rule was changed. The wedge has been the cause of many concussions in its day. But to be honest, that is why I am bummed it is being outlawed.

I love watching a grown man sprint 50 yards down field and smashing into a wall of other grown men as hard as he can.

I feel like the wording of this rule makes it a little too much like the former “Halo Rule” on punt returns, which stated on a punt return, the return man had an imaginary halo that was a yard around him that no defender could enter before the return man caught the ball.

The wedge rule states no more than two members of the return team can be within a yard of each other while standing shoulder to shoulder. How terrible does that sound?

What if you got a really tall guy next to two short guys? Their shoulders would not be anywhere close to each other.

It’s just another thing the refs have to watch during the part of the game when they seem to miss more calls.

The rule was passed after a lot of schools have already completed their spring practices, meaning some schools were not able to practice their kick return formations without a wedge.

Now I understand the NFL banned wedge blocks last year and the NCAA wanted to follow suit, but to announce it this close to the season just because the NFL did it doesn’t make sense. It is just bad.

Now for The Ugly.

Honestly, I don’t care if people have something written on their eye black. It looks ridiculous.

But then again, eye black itself looks ugly. Not that I am trying to be the fashion police, but I don’t give a crap what your area code is. It has no bearing on how you perform on the field.

I’m most interested to see the look on a coach’s face the first time a player gets a touchdown called back for taunting the opponent.

It will be a classic moment.

Ross Coleman can be reached at [email protected]