On a forum with a different rule code, the following action was offered:
B20 intercepts the ball in his own end zone but he does not take a knee. He throws the ball up in the air in celebration and the ball travels to about the 5 yard line where his teammates and team A realize it is still a live ball and there is a mad scrum and the ball falls to the ground. A ends up recovering the ball in the endzone. You make the call.
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For NCAA, the question becomes, Where did the ball land, or was first touched, after it was thrown by B20? If it landed/touched beyond the point from which it was thrown by B20, then, by rule definition, it is a forward pass, and, since it is by Team B, it is an illegal forward pass. The ball is dead when it hits the ground, and belongs to the passing team at the spot of the pass. Since that spot is in Bs end zone, the natural result of the down is, officially, a touchback, since Team A was responsible for the ball being in Team Bs end zone. Regarding the IFP foul, since the spot of the foul is in the end zone, the penalty results in a safety, 2 points for Team A. Team A will, obviously, accept the penalty.
If the thrown ball landed at a point NOT beyond the spot of the pass, then, by rule definition, it is a (legal) backward pass, and the ball would remain alive and in play. When recovered by Team A, in Bs end zone, the result of the down is a touchdown, 6 points for Team A. (Note: If the passed ball travels directly out of bounds, the result of the down is a touchback.)
Apparently, in that other rule set, the determination of a pass being forward or backward includes a judgment as to whether the path of the ball was initially forward or backward while in flight. Glad we dont have to deal with that. For us, it all depends on where the ball first touches the ground, a player, an official, or anything else (2-19-2-a). Very black and white.
