We’re exactly one week away from the start of high school football season.

Well ... sort of.

Games actually don’t begin until Thursday, Aug. 25, but practice begins next Monday. With that in mind, following are some rules changes you’ll see on the gridiron this season and a reminder of some high school football oddities that may have slipped past your radar in recent years.

Team logos on eye black tape, like these worn by Father Gabriel Richard's Donnie Eaton last season, are forbidden in 2011.

AnnArbor.com file photo

Eye black is limited to one black strip below the eye. That black strip may not have anything written on it. That includes logos, personal messages, area codes, Bible verses and everything in between.

“Tapes that you can write on are popular and we didn’t want that kind of stuff to get out of control,” said MHSAA director of communications John Johnson .

Johnson said the MHSAA representative council wanted to avoid messages being construed as offensive or unsportsmanlike, and John Randal-esque face paint considered by some to be an intimidation tool.

Having face paint that violates the rule is considered illegal equipment and can result in an 15-yard unsportsmanlike penalty. But Johnson hopes referees will simply have the players remove the paint without penalty.

“We hope common sense prevails,” Johnson said.

Unsportsmanlike penalty after touchdown

Any play resulting in a touchdown during which a team commits an unsportsmanlike or non-player foul will allow the offended team to have its choice of the penalty being forced on the subsequent extra point or kickoff.

This rule actually was added last season, but since it is different than the NFL (where penalties are automatically enforced on the ensuing kickoff), I felt it needed to be rehashed.

Horse-collar tackles

The NFL banned horse-collar tackles in 2005, the MHSAA didn’t follow suit until 2009.

In between, livid parents and fans believed that the horse-collar tackle -- in which a ball-carrier is brought down from behind by the inside of the collar -- was a penalty frequently missed by officials. Now, any ref who doesn’t throw a flag after a horse-collar tackle did, indeed, miss a call, is Lucifer himself, and hates your son.

Other football rule changes and clarifications:

• Roughing the passer: Will be enforced from the end of the play when the spot is beyond the line of scrimmage.
• Chop block: Is defined as a combination of blocks below and above the knee, with or without a delay, and is a 15-yard penalty. Two players blocking in a combination below the knee is no longer a chop block.
• 8-man football: There will be a 16-team playoff and a championship game for 8-man football.

Non-football rules changes

Other sports' rules changes -- some which were addressed following the MHSAA spring meetings -- will come into effect this season including:

• Soccer: Playoff games suspended before completion for whatever reason are considered complete if 60 minutes has elapsed and there is a leader, or the game has past halftime with a leader of two goals or more. All other suspended games will be resumed at a later date.
• Cross country: Runners are now allowed to wear watches.
• Tennis: A team point may now be deducted after a flagrant unsportsmanlike violation committed by a non-playing member of a team at any time during an MHSAA tournament.
• Diving: A diver doing a legal dive list that is judged but not scored in the team results to earn a “win” towards qualifying for MHSAA regionals.

View the complete MHSAA press release at MHSAA.com.

Pete Cunningham can be contacted at petercunningham@annarbor.com or by phone at 734-623-2561. Follow him on Twitter @petcunningham.