Whatever it is, the NCAA Football Rules Committee is against it. Strutting into the end zone is out. Players who remove their helmets on the field (whether they search for a TV camera or not) will be penalized. So, too, will the player who kneels in the end zone. If he drops to one knee and rises immediately, that’s OK. Otherwise, praying is unsportsmanlike conduct.

That’s every human being’s right, to pray where he wants to, says American Football Coaches Association executive director Grant Teaff, who assisted the Rules Committee in drawing up the stricter guidelines. What that individual doesn’t have a right to do is to draw attention to himself. If you say a guy can pray, figure out all the different ways a guy will pray in the end zone. Teaff stretched his arms wide, as in crucifixion.

The tape will consist of about 45 plays culled from 144 viewed by a special NCAA committee of officials, coaches and players last month. Dotson Lewis, former executive director of the Southwest Officials Association, helped select the plays. Here are some examples of plays from last season that were on the copy:On a fourth-down play, West Virginia tailback Robert Walker is taken down short of the first-down marker by Rutgers linebacker Alcides Catanho, who leaps in excitement. That’s OK, Lewis says. Catanho then runs to midfield and swings his arm in the no good signal. No, Lewis says. He definitely wants the spotlight on him. Catanho isn’t taunting the West Virginia bench. He’s facing his sideline. We don’t know nor do we care, Lewis says. Notre Dame defensive back Ivory Covington intercepts a pass from Southern California quarterback Rob Johnson. Covington steps out of bounds, then struts back on the field and runs away with the ball in hand. Not this year, he won’t. Leave the ball where it was blown dead or hand it to the official, Lewis says. Montrell Williams of Idaho concludes a 99-yard kickoff return by holding the ball out behind him at the Eastern Washington player giving chase. He drew an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. After Williams reached the end zone, he took off his helmet. This season, that would be a second violation and cause for ejection.

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Nebraska quarterback Tommie Frazier and Bowling Green State center Cal Bowers represented their fellow players on the committee that chose the plays to be shown on the videotape. Although the players and coaches agreed that dancing and other overt self-promotion should be curtailed, what each group considers acceptable behavior points out the generation gap in college football.

After a big tackle or a big catch, the player would stand up, not do a dance but show enthusiasm, throw his arms in the air, Bowers says. Some of the coaches thought that was too much. Tommie and I didn’t. There’s so much enthusiasm. The coaches aren’t out there. That’s the best part of football, when coaches aren’t out there. Players can have a little fun.

Frazier says, I just think it’s a bunch of guys who used to play who think it’s a problem. They’re trying to make everything go back to the 50s and 60s.

Here’s one more sign that rating recruiting classes is an exercise for those with not enough to do. Notre Dame received all the glory last February. However, two of its prize recruits have fallen short academically. Running back James Jackson of Belle Glade, Fla., scored a 16 on his ACT, one point shy of the NCAA initial-eligibility requirement. Notre Dame, as a rule, doesn’t take Prop 48s, but the university hasn’t said whether Jackson will be accepted. If he is, he couldn’t play this season and would have to come up with money for tuition, room and board, which is in the $20,000 neighborhood.