The platoon system in college football Before 1941, virtually all football players saw action on "both sides of the ball," alternating in both offensive and defensive roles. A player who had been replaced by a substitute could not, in the early years of the game, return to the contest—this restriction eased over time. Player re-entry was first allowed during the 1910 season, described as "as a player who has been removed from the game for any reason except disqualification or suspension may engage in the contest again at the beginning of any subsequent quarter, but the substitution of any such player is allowed but once during a quarter." In 1922, the rule was changed such that a player removed during the first half could not return to the field until the second half, while a player removed in the second half was lost for the game. From 1932 until 1940, another substitution rule was used, which stated, "A player may be substituted for another at any time, but a player withdrawn from the game may not return in the same period or intermission in which he was withdrawn." This is to say that, once removed for a substitute, a player was lost to his team for the duration of the quarter. Illegal return of a player to the field was regarded as a severe infraction of the rules, with the returning player ejected from the game and his team assessed a massive 25-yard penalty. Although this rule change had the practical effect of allowing alternating mass substitutions of entire squads for offense and defense, such a substitution strategy was not immediately put to use. The first known use of the "two-platoon" system was by
Michigan head coach
Fritz Crisler in 1945 against an
Army team under head coach "Colonel"
Earl "Red" Blaik. Although Michigan lost the game 28–7, Crisler's use of eight players who played only on offense, eight who played only on defense, and three that played both ways, impressed Blaik enough for him to adopt it for his own team. Blaik, a former soldier himself, was the one who began using the word "
platoon" for this football substitution strategy, in reference to the type of military unit. Changes in substitution rules were initially driven by the realities of
World War II. Wartime needs for military manpower depleted football rosters as players joined military units. Free substitution — apparently intended to help lesser players by allowing longer rest breaks — was implemented in a rule change made April 7, 1943, "for the duration" of the war effort. This was paired with a one-year rule change made in August reducing the size of wartime NFL rosters from 33 players to 28, in an effort to reduce the impact of travel to and from games. A move back to unlimited free substitution was made for another one year trial in the
1949 NFL season, but once again this was paired with a reduction rather than an increase in roster size, this time from 35 down to 32. Despite the NCAA's return to the one-platoon system in 1953, the NFL has maintained unlimited free substitution since 1949.
NCAA return to the one-platoon system Starting with the 1953 season, the NCAA emplaced a set of new rules requiring the use of a one-platoon system, primarily for financial reasons. While a few sources may indicate that only one player was allowed to be substituted between plays, according to the NCAA, the actual rule allowed a player to enter the game only once in each quarter. More precisely, a player leaving the game in the first or third quarter could not return until the beginning of the next quarter, and a player leaving the game in the second or fourth quarter could not return until the final four minutes of that quarter.
Tennessee head coach "General"
Robert Neyland praised the change as the end of "chickenshit football". NCAA substitution rules were gradually liberalized over the next 11 seasons.
Elimination of the one-platoon system For the 1964 season, This allowed, starting with the 1964 season, teams to form separate offensive and defensive units as well as "
special teams" which would be employed in kicking situations. By the early 1970s, however, some university administrators, coaches and others were calling for a return to the days of one-platoon football.
Arena football The sport of
arena football used a limited one-platoon system (from which quarterbacks, kickers and one "
specialist" were exempt) from its inception until 2007. The
2024 revival of the Arena Football League reintroduced the system in what proved to be its
only season but abandoned it after three weeks. ==See also==