YES! PI as a spot foul. I like that one.
I'd change your first idea too. If the offense fumbles through the endzone, the defense gets 2 points and the ball goes back to the 10.
Another change to penalty enforcement:
- Penalties on kick returns and dead ball fouls have yardage added after the ball is spotted. No more 10 yard penalty then 1st & 10. It's 1st & 20. Same idea for dead ball personal fouls on the offense - it's 1st & 25.
Completely agree with your enforcement suggestion! It really is non-sensical the way it is currently done.
I have several suggestions for improvement:
1. Motion penalties. If a player is in motion and moves toward the line of scrimmage, so what? Eliminate that penalty.
2. Maybe eliminate the holding penalty completely. Instead of continually trying to decide whether or not an OL is holding, just let everything go. Best wrestler wins the challenge and either gets to the QB or is able to successfully protect the QB. Plus, it eliminates the judgement call of whether the hold occured at the point of attack and should be called or it was on the opposite side of the field and is to be ignored.
3. I agree with eliminating the requirement for a defender to be looking back at the QB.
4. Eliminate the issue of a knee, elbow, thigh, or butt touching the ground. As long as the ball is moving forward (which IS the entire object of the game!) then the ball is live. The play is not dead until the ball's forward progress is stopped. If the ball carrier dives forward and slides 2 yards forward holding the ball out in front of him, then the ball is placed where the ball stops. If the guy is tackled near the goal line there is no concern about whether the knee was down before the ball crossed the plane of the goal as he was falling forward, if he is able to stretch the ball over the line, it is a TD.
5. False starts. It is ridiculous that a team can come up to the line, have everyone be set for the snap and then the OL rises up and looks over to the sideline. Then they come back to a set position and get a false start penalty called because the right guard's forearm twitches. WTF? Or a WR twitches like he is starting but his feet remained in place and a penalty is called. Why is a penalty called for these ticky tack violations and not when the entire line rises up from a set position? Again, it is non-sensical. And I seem to remember a time when the Cougs used the quick snap and also the mutts used it against us before they rose up to get the sideline signal.
6. How about making it legal for every player on a team to wear receivers in the helmets for calling the plays? Eliminate all the elaborate signaling in, sending in plays by switching players etc. That would allow for making the play clock time less, leading to more plays in a game. Lower it from 40 seconds to 30, 25 seconds to 20 for dead ball situations.
I guess that's enough for now. I have gone way past the original request for one suggestion. Sorry about that, but I just see so many ways to improve the game.