In 2010 a new rule for the next NCAA football season banned messages on eye paint. This rule was dubbed "The Tebow Rule" by media because it would have affected him.
During his college football career, he frequently wore references to biblical verses on his eye black. In the 2009 BCS Championship Game, he wore John 3:16 on his eye black; the verse was the highest-ranked Google search term over the next 24 hours, generating over 90 million searches. Additionally, later, when Tebow switched to another verse, there were 3.43 million searches of "Tim Tebow" and "Proverbs 3:5-6" together. Tebow stated of the searches "It just goes to show you the influence and the platform that you have as a student-athlete and as a quarterback at Florida".
The NFL already has a rule like this in prohibiting players from wearing messages on eye black, so Tebow would not have been able to continue the practice in the NFL. Despite the media labeling it as the Tebow rule, the NCAA denies the rule was influenced by Tebow particularly, since many other notable players (Reggie Bush and Terrelle Pryor for example) wear or have worn messages on eye black. An NCAA spokesman said: "When this rule was proposed, the committee did not focus on any one team or student athlete. That measure reinforces what the intended use of eye black is, which is to shade the eyes from the sun."
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