Could cut blocks in college be chopped?

• Talk NFL might ban all blocks below waist has some college coaches keeping fingers crossed
• Technique is particularly prominent at service academies, which run option offenses
• Army coach Rich Ellerson: "In a lot of ways, (cut-block ban) would put us out of business"

Chatter that the NFL will consider banning all blocks below the waist is being heard in college football.

And though there are no immediate plans by the NCAA rules committee to follow in lockstep, it's a development that could have a profound impact on the game at all levels and particularly at the service academies, where cut-blocking techniques help make them competitive.

"In a lot of ways, it would put us out of business," Army coach Rich Ellerson said.

When Army and Navy play Saturday in Philadelphia for the Commander-in-Chief's Trophy, it will be another reminder of the vast differences between service academies and the rest of college football. While offenses have become more spread out and run at a faster tempo, the three service academies — as well as Georgia Tech, where former Navy coach Paul Johnson brought his offense — still run a variety of the triple option.

It works, too. Air Force will make its sixth consecutive bowl appearance this year, Navy has made the postseason nine of the last 10 years and Army has been more competitive since ditching a pro-style offense in 2009 and hiring Ellerson, who ran the triple option at Cal Poly.

That success has come despite significant recruiting restrictions and generally smaller players, especially along the offensive line. Year after year, however, service academies rank among the nation's leaders in rushing offense because of execution and the ability to take out defensive players at the knees, known more commonly as "cutting."

"At a service academy, you won't have 300-pound guys, so you get strong, fit, athletic guys that need to use their athleticism to be effective blockers," Ellerson said. "To turn it into a Greco-Roman type, push-shove game, the physics work against us."

Though legal, there has been a long-running debate in football circles over whether cut blocking leads to more leg injuries. The NCAA has adjusted its rules on the technique over the years, limiting it to offensive linemen and straight-ahead blocks, in hopes of bolstering player safety.

According to a recent report by Sports Illustrated, however, the NFL competition committee will consider banning all blocks below the waist in 2013. There's no guarantee it will pass. But if it does, there could be significant pressure on college football to take a similar step — even if there's no clear consensus that it would reduce injury risks.

"You'd think the way everybody talks about it, it's just like a morgue every week when you play, like they're carrying guys off on stretchers and I haven't seen it," said Johnson, who is 40-27 at Georgia Tech. "I don't know how you ask 180-pound back to pick up a 260-pound blitzer or how you do a lot of things if you don't allow blocking below the waist. It's a phenomenon driven by people complaining. I'd like to see some stats on the injury part of it."

Though service academies and other option-based offenses are perceived to utilize cut blocks the most, the technique is fairly widespread because it works in getting defensive players on the ground. If it were outlawed, Florida State coach Jimbo Fisher said, it would cause an immediate paradigm shift in how teams run the football.

"The way defenses move now, the constant movements, if you don't cut on the backside, it's hard to get running plays, it really is," Fisher said. "You have to maybe go to more power-type schemes and things like that. And offenses like (the option), I think if that does happen, I think it would critically hamper a lot of the things they do."

Though Navy coach Ken Niumatalolo concedes that players can sustain injuries getting cut-blocked, he wonders why that's where the line should be drawn given that there is injury risk in being tackled below the waist as well. But he doesn't agree that it would suddenly make his program uncompetitive.

"It's not just option teams, you see a lot of conventional (offenses) where running backs will cut block to get to the edge if they're sprinting out or running backs picking up a blitzing linebacker. People would have to adjust. I really don't worry about it, but if it happens you just adjust. I guess my concern might be the direction football is going. The game always evolves and being concerned about injuries is very understandable. I just don't know where we stop."