Back in the day, Soccer and football didn’t mix. It was like oil and water. You were either a ‘soccer player’ or a ‘football player’. There were definitive cliques that existed with those types of people. It doesn’t exist anymore. Why? Well for one, it was fucking stupid in the first place. And secondly, soccer has become more mainstream. People have their EPL, La Liga, Serie A or Bundesliga team, they cheer for the United States’ men and women’s teams or their local college. One thing that soccer does better than football is a card system for serious infractions. The college football targeting should apply a card system for their rules versus an automatic one-half suspension.

This isn’t a new argument. People have made this case before, but I truly believe this would be the best system for targeting. Why? Well, it would enforce the rule without punishing a player for the bang-bang play. What happened in the Wisconsin-Michigan game last week is a perfect example of why this model would work great for college football. If the officials wanted to give Eric Burrell a targeting call, they could provide a yellow card and he’s booked for next week with another yellow, he would be forced to sit out for a half. Reggie Pearson would probably get a straight red and be suspended for the first half of the next game. There are too few games to suspended for an entire game following like they do with soccer. That’s not fair. If the conference feels strongly about the hit, they could step in with a suspension.

Likely, that will never see a good way to call targeting. To me, it is a good rule to have in college football. The players in this sport are much wilder than what we have in the National Football League. They do not have the self-control and the knowledge we see in the pros. But adjustments are needed to have a true system that works well for all involved parties.

Badgers will likely survive without their safeties against Northwestern, but I shudder to think what might have happened if their next opponent was Ohio State.