(Smith Cameron Photography)

The NCAA might be smartening up with some rule changes.

Two rule amendments in college football could benefit Carolina and other college programs this season and they both make a lot of sense – for the good of the student-athlete.

The Tar Heels will have Ohio State transfer running back Antonio Williams eligible this season, after UNC applied for a waiver to the one-year red-shirt rule for transfers. Athletes who are unhappy at one school should be allowed to transfer without being penalized by having to sit out a season.

The rule was originally implemented, I guess, to keep schools from raiding other schools for players who either are sitting on the bench or homesick or whatever.

The NCAA might be worried that schools are paying players to transfer, and if that’s the case it should investigate it like recruiting and slap that school with a violation. If the transferring player is unhappy, he can go somewhere else.

The other rule I like is extending the number of games to four and still allow a player who has seen action to red-shirt. That is great for medical reasons, if a player gets hurt in his fourth game. But it also gives coaches a chance to see a player under fire before deciding whether he is ready or needs to be red-shirted.

That may come into play this season for Larry Fedora, who frankly doesn’t know who is quarterback will be for various reasons from inexperience to lack of enough ability to possible NCAA suspensions for shoe-gate.

Fedora can test out a couple of freshmen, and if they need to go back to practice they can do so without losing a year. If Nathan Elliott gets hurt in the fourth game, he won’t lose the whole season. Who knows, someone might be serving a suspension and be reinstated just in time to take the place of an injured player who will now be red-shirted.

These are rules that make sense for the athletes, giving them the best chance to have a full experience in college if coaches pull off their red-shirts and they are still not ready. Who gets hurt in a situation like that? No one, and that’s what the NCAA should be aiming for – what’s best for the athlete.

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