Turns out I could have just saddled FIFTY kids with a UNS instead. Is that better or worse?
I doubt this is going to answer your question, but, the door is open, so I will enter and tell this (true) story. Keep in mind that this event happened before the current two-UNS automatic DQ rule, and the non-football related physical actions being treated as UNS (instead of UNR) rule. It was also before the practice of identifying the first offender and penalizing only him was made available.
Had a rivalry collegiate game, workin' "S" at the time. Opening kickoff - OPENING KICKOFF - returner gets tackled near his own sideline. Due to a normal gathering of players, as well as offensive players moving onto field, I couldn't get to the opposite side of the players involved in the tackle, but I saw opponents face-to-face on the other side of the crowd. The home team player (I'll call him A99) then head-butts the visiting team player. Still trying to work through/around the crowd, I lost sight of the visiting team player, but I get the home team player's number (A99), at about the time another visiting team player starts tusslin' with him. More players step into the act, just grabbing, bumping, holding - nothing egregious. But it took some effort to get everybody separated. Honestly, I lost track of the visiting team player that I believed was involved in the initial tussle with A99, but, by his actions, I picked B1 as the culprit. I reported fouls AND DQs of A99 and B1 to the R. The visiting team began protesting vigorously that B1 wasn't the right guy (an admission, of sorts, that someone on their team was guilty - just not B1). Drawing upon my old minor-league baseball umpiring experience, when you can't identify the guy chirpin' at ya, you tell the manager to pick somebody, cuz, somebody's going. So, I told the HC, if it wasn't B1, who was it? He eventually picked a guy (B80), and we DQd A99 and B80. Everybody seemed OK, and we finished the game with everything under control.
Well, that didn't go over so well with the conference. The parents of B80 gave the commissioner grief about their son being DQd. (I think they were really annoyed that the HC picked their son to be the one to sit down - even though he was a low-tier player.) The commissioner gave the coordinator grief. The coordinator gave me grief. The coordinator agreed that we needed to do something to keep the game under control, but DQing an innocent guy wasn't the way to do it.
I offered to apologize to the player and his family, but was never asked to do that. Needless to say, I was not in good favor with that coordinator thereafter.
How does that mesh with the mass UNS? I don't know. The conference didn't like the "pick a guy" method - but, that was a DQ, not just a UNS. They, and the NCAA might be OK with a mass UNS, in the event of multiple, multiple violators - when identification isn't feasible. The mass UNS would seem to be a "gentler & kinder" resolution to a messy situation. Major conferences with lots of video might prefer to offset everything with no UNS, and then let the conference office review video and decide on additional punishments. But, that won't work so well with D2 and D3 schools, with limited video.
I'm guessing this issue will be discussed at the off-season meetings (if not sooner), and direction offered.
Robert