By JOHN JAMES MARSHALL/Designated Writers

Once again, they didn’t clear it with me, but the NCAA will have some rule changes for the 2020 season. It’s not official yet, but these are the recommendations.

Nothing really all that major, but a rule change is a rule change. So we must discuss.

Here’s what they have come up with, in no particular order of importance:

** Putting in a two-minute time limit for officials to make decisions on instant replay. It’s a step in the right direction, but it shouldn’t take two minutes. We don’t need the triple magnified angle and we don’t need to run it back and forth looking for something that isn’t there. A better solution is this: Make the call on the field. Then ask a replay official, who isn’t watching the game and doesn’t know what the call is, to make the call based on 60 seconds of review. He has no prejudice going into it. If he makes the call, it stands. If he can’t tell, it reverts back to the call on the field and he goes back to watching Netflix. Done.

** Allow players who have been ejected for targeting  to stay on the sidelines, instead of having to go to the locker room. What took you so long? A guy gets his helmet in a bad spot because the ball carrier ducked at the last second and that’s a gots-to-go situation? Let ’em stay and avoid the perp walk like he’s some hardened criminal.

** Having the officials take jurisdiction over the field 90 minutes before the game instead of 60. The object here is to prevent pre-game scuffles because more and more, players are coming out to warm up earlier than before. Somebody punts into the wrong end of the field or somebody runs through the wrong warmup line. I guess there’s always the possibility that something could break loose 91 minutes for kickoff, but we’ll take our chances on that.

**Limiting the amount of duplicate jersey numbers to two to help avoid confusion. Then why have two? Shouldn’t it be zero? This should never have become an issue. When the freshman walked into the locker room and said “I want No. 7,” the equipment manager should have said, “We don’t have 7 available, The All-American over there has it. Could I interest you in No. 46?” Coaches got so scared that Joe Bluechipper wouldn’t come to his school unless he got his favorite number that they all backed down and gave in. I’m a big jersey number guy, but I also believe in making the most of the number they give you. Which leads us to …

** Because they are limiting the double numbers and because single digit numbers are now the rage, the No. 0 is now a legal jersey number. First of all, there are mathematic semantics to deal with. Is zero really a number? Before you laugh, you might want to do a little research. (There’s this thing called Google that might help.) And basically what you will find is that of course it’s a number … except when it isn’t. Math geeks, y’all take it from here. No doubt that all players whose last names begin with ‘O’ will want this, as will most defensive linemen. It just fits them. Quarterbacks are too pretty to wear No. 0 and wide receivers are too hung up on looking pretty. Zero isn’t pretty. But if someone’s last name is “Coke”and he asks for No. 0, how big of a name, image & likeness check will he be getting!