Lip service

Questionnaires addressing the attitudes of football officials toward National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) mouthguard rules were developed and distributed to officials in the Big East Football Conference, the Southeastern Conference, and to head football coaches at Division 1-A colleges. Response rates, which ranged from 92.45% to 100%, showed that all groups agreed that football officials are less accountable for player compliance than are coaches, trainers and players. However, officials not only observed a lower rate of compliance with NCAA mouthguard regulations than coaches, they also expressed reluctance to enforce NCAA-sanctioned penalties for failure to comply with mouthguard regulations.