While I can't tell you what's hot and what's not, I can tell you that Steve Shaw, a NCAA rules guru, spoke. An early question was : "Why doesn't the NCAA have a rule regarding knee pads and the lack thereoff 
" His answer was :"We do, the coaches just won't enforce it 
!" There seemed to be something misplaced with such a pecking order 
.
Thankfully, the knee pad /pants / hip pads / tailbone protector issues didn’t become issues until after my retirement from FBS. But, we still had mouthpieces and socks to deal with during my days. Having ‘been there, done that’ for those issues, I can testify that officials want to do the right thing, but there is no support for them regarding uniform and equipment rules. Coaches don’t care. They will allow anything, if they think they can get even the tiniest competitive advantage, or at least they match what the other team is getting away with, and don’t get put at a disadvantage.
The only way to get change on these rules is for an official to decide his career is over, anyway, so why not go out with a bang, and bring attention to these issues, by, on the first play of a game a national TV, sending out every player who’s knees aren’t covered and padded, who don’t have a mouthpiece, hip pads, or tailbone protectors, and not allow them to re-enter until the violation is corrected. Oh. What? You don’t have 11 players that are compliant? Well, then, I guess that’s a forfeit. What’s that you say? The other team doesn’t have 11 compliant players either? Then I guess that’s a double forfeit. Bye.
No one wants to be that guy. But, no one will stand up and support us when we try to make them get into compliance. They just tell us we’re being too technical.
So, there. That’s why you see what you see in NCAA football.
Here is a scenario that might elicit change: BC A33 is being tackled by an opponent pulling on his pony tail, which causes A33’s bare kneecap to strike B77 directly on the tip of B77’s unpadded coccyx, breaking B77’s coccyx and dislocating A33’s kneecap. As he falls to the ground, A33’s helmeted head is contacted forcibly by the unpadded hip bone of B99, breaking B99’s hip bone. A33, not wearing a mouthpiece, bites his tongue severely, and sustains a severe concussion by the contact with B99’s hip. As there are no ‘contact’ or UNS/UNR fouls during the down, the only action following the down is the removal of A33, B77, and B99 from the game for their injuries. None are able to return to the game. A33, B77, and B99 - all pre-season All-Americans and top ten NFL draft prospects, are medically prevented from playing for at least the next 21 days, to recover from their injuries, causing them to miss their conference championship games, and dramatically reducing their ‘stock’ in the draft.
That might get folks to re-thinking these things. Nah.
