Replay officials will have more say about what is a targeting penalty in college football next season.
The NCAA playing rules oversight panel approved Tuesday a proposal by the rules committee to expand instant replay officials’ authority regarding targeting fouls. Replay officials now will be able to call “egregious” targeting penalties missed by on-field officials. They also will have more flexibility to overturn incorrect targeting calls.
Targeting results in a 15-yard penalty and the ejection of the player who commits the foul.
All targeting fouls are reviewed, but replay officials have been limited to reviewing only if there was forcible contact to the head and neck area and if the hit was made with the crown of the helmet. Under this proposal, how the contact occurred, whether the player launched into an opponent or whether the contact was more incidental, also can be reviewed.
There were 158 targeting penalties called in all FBS games last season. Forty-three were overturned by replay review and 115 were upheld.
Soccer
Cristiano Ronaldo and James Rodriguez scored second-half goals to help host Real Madrid defeat Roma 2-0 and advance to the Champions League quarterfinals for the sixth consecutive season.
In the other game Tuesday, Wolfsburg reached the last eight for the first time with a 1-0 win at home over Belgian champion Gent.
Tennis
Justine Henin and Marat Safin have been elected to the International Tennis Hall of Fame. With a classic one-handed backhand, Henin won seven Grand Slam singles titles, an Olympic gold medal and helped Belgium win its first Fed Cup championship. The enigmatic Safin earned two major titles — at the 2000 U.S. Open and 2005 Australian Open — and briefly reached No. 1. Also in the Hall’s Class of 2016: Yvon Petra and Margaret Scriven were posthumously elected in the master player category.
Motor sports
According to a person with knowledge of the decision, organizers of the Formula One U.S. Grand Prix are set to announce the race will run in 2016 after months of speculation that financial troubles could force it off the calendar. The Circuit of the Americas, which hosts the race near Austin, Texas, scheduled a Wednesday news conference.
Miscellany
Nicolas Petit has taken the early lead in the 2016 Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. Petit is the first musher in to Nikolai, Alaska. He reached the village at 8:41 a.m. , passing four-time champion and previous leader Lance Mackey.
