That has everything to do with the football game itself and scoring touchdowns, not kicking. The hash marks all used to be the same or about the same. As the NFL evolved into a "passing" game they wanted all plays starting from the middle of the field which opens up both sidelines for passing plays. HS and college remained, for the most part, a running oriented game and the hashes stayed the same. I believe however that the NCAA also moved their hashes in when they went to the narrower NFL width goal posts. Just not to the NFL width. You'll see 3 sets of hash marks on some fields now. The NFL is all about showbiz now and they are not all that concerned about the integrity of the game. As long as TV ratings are high. all is well in their minds. For instance, why do you think they moved the kick off point back to the 30 and made everyone use a 1 inch tee? Believe it or not there were not that many kicks for touchbacks back then. Kick off returns for touchdowns make for great ESPN highlight moments that's why. When the kick-off's were from the 40 teams had a choice of kicking it into the end zone or hitting a high hanger and trying to pin the returner inside the 20 much like a punt. Can't have that can we? If they could change the rules to make punters hit the ball lower believe me they would do that too. Everything is about the highlight reel these days. Also, Chris Boniol stated about the same as above. It was a way to open up the sidelines to give the offense more room passing and running plays. Chris said it's not about kicking at all, he said it does make it easier on the angles. But the NFL made kicking harder by kicking new balls on each kick. http://www.kicking.com/board/philboard_read.asp?id=2742 Hash Marks: The measurements between the Hash Marks for High School, College, the NFL and CFL are different:. High School: the width of the hashmarks are 53 feet, 4 inches College: hashmarks are 40 feet wide NFL: hash marks are 18 feet, 6 inches wide CFL: hash marks are 17 yards (51 feet wide)