PRCA rule changes, 2011 NFR qualifying class & Casper (WY) College coach injured

• Effective with the start of the 2012 season, the payoff for the tie-down roping average in two-round rodeos will be one-and-a-half times what the payoff is for each go-round. For example? If a rodeo were to pay $2,000 to the winner in each round, the average winner would receive $3,000. Team roping went to that format last season.

• The number of rodeos that team ropers can officially count in the world standings has been increased from 70 to 85 for the 2012 season. No other event limits were changed.

• There will be 22 first-timers among the 104 PRCA qualifiers for the Dec. 1-10 Wrangler National Finals Rodeo, including six in the bull riding field and five saddle bronc riders. It is the third lowest number of NFR rookies in the last decade. Rookie bull rider Chandler Bownds, 20, is the youngest qualifier among the 104 and two-time World Champion Team Roper Walt Woodard, the oldest at 56. Woodard made the first of his 20 Wrangler NFR qualifications in 1976, 15 years before Bownds was born.

• Tuf Cooper, the world standings leader in the tie-down roping, will be launching his personal Web site tufcooper.com on Dec. 1, just in time for the start of the Wrangler NFR.

• Longtime Casper (WY) College rodeo coach Tom Parker suffered a broken pelvis Sept. 28 during the team’s roughstock practice at the Central Wyoming Fairgrounds. Parker’s horse was bumped by a bull and the horse fell on him. World Champion Bareback Rider Kelly Timberman is serving as interim coach.

• Effective with the start of the 2012 season, the payoff for the tie-down roping average in two-round rodeos will be one-and-a-half times what the payoff is for each go-round. For example? If a rodeo were to pay $2,000 to the winner in each round, the average winner would receive $3,000. Team roping went to that format last season.

• The number of rodeos that team ropers can officially count in the world standings has been increased from 70 to 85 for the 2012 season. No other event limits were changed.

• There will be 22 first-timers among the 104 PRCA qualifiers for the Dec. 1-10 Wrangler National Finals Rodeo, including six in the bull riding field and five saddle bronc riders. It is the third lowest number of NFR rookies in the last decade. Rookie bull rider Chandler Bownds, 20, is the youngest qualifier among the 104 and two-time World Champion Team Roper Walt Woodard, the oldest at 56. Woodard made the first of his 20 Wrangler NFR qualifications in 1976, 15 years before Bownds was born.

• Tuf Cooper, the world standings leader in the tie-down roping, will be launching his personal Web site tufcooper.com on Dec. 1, just in time for the start of the Wrangler NFR.

• Longtime Casper (WY) College rodeo coach Tom Parker suffered a broken pelvis Sept. 28 during the team’s roughstock practice at the Central Wyoming Fairgrounds. Parker’s horse was bumped by a bull and the horse fell on him. World Champion Bareback Rider Kelly Timberman is serving as interim coach.