Where Have All the Mouthpieces Gone?

If you are an avid reader of Sportsbook Advisor content, first off, thank you. We appreciate your loyalty and it’s our hope that you gain something from the content we produce. Second, you might remember something we did a while ago about uniforms, specifically in college football.

When you watch a college football game, you will typically see players wearing what look like shorts. The pants do not cover the knees anymore and players, especially skill players, do not wear knee pads. 

The other thing you’ll see are mouthpieces … but they are usually not in the mouth of a player. Some are scattered on the field of play or on the sideline, but most are dangling from a player’s facemask. 

Aren’t they supposed to have those mouthpieces in their mouths? Well, by rule, they are required to, but officials no longer enforce the rule. It makes little sense why.

The Rule Book

The NCAA produces the NCAA Football Rules Book prior to each and every season. Section, Article 3 addresses the equipment that is mandatory for players to wear. Mouthpieces are one such piece of equipment. They are mandated by NCAA rule and have been since 1973.

When the whole concussion thing blew up, mouthpieces were then required to be brightly colored. This made it easier for officials to see them and ensure that players were wearing them. 

With concussion rates down over the last several years, we’ve seen more and more players not wearing the mouthpiece. In college, mouthpieces do not have to be connected to the face mask of the helmet. Officials really have no way of knowing whether or not a player is wearing one unless the player uses a mouthpiece that is connected to the helmet. It is quite often that spectators see multiple players with mouthpieces hanging from a facemask while play is happening.

High school rules also require the wearing of a mouthpiece. The mouthpieces must be colored, and they must connect to the facemask. The NFL does not mandate the wearing of a mouthpiece.

Why Players Don’t Wear a Mouthpiece

The biggest reason we see so many players not wearing a mouthpiece is related to incentives. There is no incentive to wear the mouthpiece and there is also no consequence for not wearing one. 

Remember, years ago, an “equipment violation” could be penalized as a personal foul which resulted in a 15-yard penalty. That has changed through the years, but more so these days is just the enforcement of the penalty. Officials do not enforce the mouthpiece rule. 

Players do also complain about the comfort or fit of a mouthpiece. However, modern versions of the mouthpiece are much more comfortable than the days of the old clear mouthguards of the 1970s and ‘80s. 

Players also have an issue with communication. Quarterbacks must call out signals. Offensive linemen must make their line calls. Defensive players call out their signals and adjustments as well. For many players, having a mouthpiece disrupts this communication. 

Regardless, there still is a rule in place that calls for all players to wear a mouthpiece. Officials just don’t enforce the rule anymore.

Rule Enforcement

Don’t expect this to change anytime soon. It’s the same with the pants no longer covering the knee. When a wide receiver lines up right next to a line judge with a mouthpiece dangling from his helmet, the line judge has the choice to enforce the mouthpiece rule.

Typically, an official would first simply tell a player to put his mouthpiece in. If the player repeatedly left the mouthpiece out, the official could enforce the penalty by stopping the clock and charging the player’s team with a timeout. If all timeouts are exhausted, a five-yard penalty is administered. 

To reiterate, the mouthpiece penalty occurs numerous times in every college football game. Officials are just not enforcing the rule, and they’re not enforcing it for a reason.

Over the years, officials have always been highly scrutinized. Too often, officials would be criticized as “overly officious” if they would call equipment-related penalties. Coaches and administrators don’t support these types of penalties because “they don’t affect the play of the game.”

Officials will still warn players about their mouthpieces, but it’s just not worth the hassle anymore to call the penalty. Plus, coaches will confirm that all of their players are properly equipped prior to a game. That shifts the liability for injury from officials to the coaches. Officials then are not as concerned anymore with a player’s equipment which results in fewer penalties (if any).