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NCAA Discussion / UCLA-Oregon incorrect penalty enforcement on the try

« Last post by zebrastripes on Today at 03:33:48 PM »

Chris Coyte’s crew was having a very spirited discussion about where the penalty for a defensive facemask foul should be enforced from on Oregon’s unsuccessful 2-point attempt late in the game. Unfortunately the incorrect enforcement won out and they replayed the try from the +1.5 rather than the +0.5 (which would have been approximately half the distance from where the run ended on the first attempt).

https://youtu.be/TeqHPwD3YVU?is=f_J50SYIwMnbWjkl

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National Federation Discussion / Re: :40 Play Clock after B Fouls

« Last post by ncwingman on Today at 01:26:41 PM »

Yep, the book is clear that :25 supersedes :40 even if some don’t agree. I would still propose just going to :25 after all penalty administration with the option for :40 on B fouls when the game clock is starting on the ready inside of 2:00. We already have the option for the offended team to start the game clock on the snap inside of 2:00, so why would this be any different?

I agree that the rule states that :40 is the default, but is set to :25 under certain circumstances - ergo, :25 supersedes :40. However....

bama's scenario: A calls a timeout. After the time out, there's :25 seconds on the play clock. The ball is marked ready for play and the play clock starts running. If B jumps offsides prior to the snap, there is an officials time out under 3-5-7i due to a defensive player, which does not fall under the :25 superseding rule as per 3-6-1(a)-1(e) Exception 2 (man, that just rolls off the tongue...).

The timeout was over. The ball was marked ready for play. The play clock started running and needs reset ... 3-6-1(a)-1(d) no longer applies, because it was just stopped due to the foul, not the timeout.

That being said, I'd support the rule to be changed to reflect what you're saying (or what steely dan was saying, if the game clock is on the ready or not) but I disagree that it is what the rule currently says.

The situation where the rule is really dumb is: game clock running, snap is imminent, B jumps into the neutral zone. Now A gets a new :40 with a running game clock and can potentially eat 1:20 in total dead ball time unless you apply 3-4-6 and hold the GC until the snap.

Maybe the defense shouldn't have jumped into the neutral zone. That's on them. There's lots of dumb rules, but they are the rules.

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NCAA Discussion / It has happened here, too

« Last post by ElvisLives on Today at 01:22:52 PM »

First Fair Catch Kick in NCAA has happened. Montclair State vs Lycoming. Lycoming punts from their end line, Montclair State makes fair catch at Lycoming 30. Montclair State misses 40 yard Fair Catch Kick as time expires in the first half.

Total points scored on Fair Catch Kicks in NCAA and Texas high school football = 0. 😂

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Texas Topics / It has happened

« Last post by ElvisLives on Today at 10:46:12 AM »

Fair Catch Kick executed by Sunset (versus Tyler). Sunset completes a fair catch of a free kick after a safety (Sunset up 57-0, around 4 mins. to play, so they probably figured it wouldn’t hurt anything to let their kicker give it a shot). FCK is made at the 50. Ball falls short and is muffed by B player in his own end zone. Ball deflects out to the B-4, recovered by B. If they would left the ball alone, they’d have got it at the previous spot - the 50. Not smart.
So, there ya go. First one attempted in Texas HS football.
I heard one may have been tried in D3, but haven’t confirmed.

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National Federation Discussion / Re: :40 Play Clock after B Fouls

« Last post by zebrastripes on Today at 09:54:29 AM »

The situation where the rule is really dumb is: game clock running, snap is imminent, B jumps into the neutral zone. Now A gets a new :40 with a running game clock and can potentially eat 1:20 in total dead ball time unless you apply 3-4-6 and hold the GC until the snap.

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National Federation Discussion / Re: Personal Fouls: What makes the cut, and why?

« Last post by refjeff on Today at 08:39:59 AM »

I'm trying to get better on differentiating personal fouls from other fouls, and finding it to be an oddly difficult subject. Does anyone have a good line on the philosophy or rulemaking history that resulted in the list of personal fouls being what it is today?

My basic thought would be personal fouls are contact fouls that have an increased risk of injury, but there's stuff in the list that doesn't strike me as particularly dangerous (does anyone think slapping the head of a helmeted player is actually going to hurt?),

  It's called a concussion and is well documented.


 

and there's stuff my association is trained to look for as particularly dangerous (illegal low blocks) that doesn't make the cut.

  It may not be  PF but it is still a 15 yard penalty. 

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National Federation Discussion / Re: :40 Play Clock after B Fouls

« Last post by ncwingman on Yesterday at 07:24:57 PM »

If there's a foul or injury by B, we do 25 if game clock is on the snap and 40 if game clock on the ready.  I don't know if that's textbook or not, but that's how they teach it here (New Orleans area).

It is not textbook, no.

Clock operators are mostly rookie officials and typically clueless, so to expect them to decipher the upcoming game clock status and then set the play clock accordingly is a bit of a stretch.....  White hat usually pumps one or two hands to guide them as well.

I don't really begrudge people for not knowing. What really grinds my gears is when they also aren't watching us pump to tell them what to do when it is wrong -- that's when I start to consider "firing" them.

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National Federation Discussion / Re: Personal Fouls: What makes the cut, and why?

« Last post by NVFOA_Ump on Yesterday at 10:13:46 AM »

Virtually all personnel foul violations are for actions that have been documented as creating a significant risk of injury.  The list has been developed over many decades, so my comment is something like: We don't need to ask why, we simply enforce the current rules. 

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General Discussion / Why does football officiating more so than other sports utilize set “crews”?

« Last post by zebrastripes on Yesterday at 07:11:14 AM »

I know not every association assigns games by crew (i.e. where you work with the same people each week) and some states actually don’t allow crews period. But I’ve always been curious why football officiating in general tends to have a culture where you work with the same group each week, from the NFL down to high school.

Basketball officials work with different partners every night. Baseball umpires have a different crew for each series. Yet in football the culture of “my crew” persists even as mechanics are standardized and governing bodies have gotten more strict about everyone doing everything the same way.

I bring this up because I have noticed more so this season than others how complacent guys who’ve “been working together for 20 years” frequently become, to the detriment of the game. Things like lazy mechanics, penalty administration that no one steps up to correct, “we do it this way” culture, etc.

It really doesn’t seem like working with the same guys/gals each week serves any purpose anymore other than comfort and “the way we’ve always done it.”

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National Federation Discussion / Re: Personal Fouls: What makes the cut, and why?

« Last post by sj on October 09, 2026, 03:36:11 PM »

One thing to understand is that there are two criteria that qualifies an action for Unnecessary Roughness.

If the act is 1) Unnecessary and 2) Rough, it's a foul. Kind of simple and yet it can help.