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Football Officiating => NCAA Discussion => Topic started by: JasonTX on September 20, 2022, 07:21:10 PM
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1st and 10 at the 50. A55 snaps the ball to A10, who is lined up 5 yards behind him. The snap is high and forces A10 to jump into the air. He controls the ball while airborne and while still airborne tosses the ball forward to A22 who was running a jet sweep. The ball hits the ground and B20 falls on it at the 50 yardline. Ruling?
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A10 has not caught the ball, because he did not return to the ground inbounds while firmly holding/controlling the ball. By interpretation from John Adams a long time ago, and documented by AR 7-3-6-VIII, when he then propelled the ball (even after grasping the ball in his hands), A10 has batted the ball,
and a pass (forward or backward) may be batted in any direction in the field of play, by any player eligible to touch the ball. See Legacy’s post below. The batting does not change the status of the ball. Thus, the resultant loose ball is a ball loose from a backward pass (the snap), is alive and in play, and may be recovered by anybody. When B20 falls on, and possesses, the ball while grounded, the ball is dead and belongs to Team B, with a series at that spot.
B, 1/10, 50, snap (25).
I was fixated on the fact that the interpretation from Adams so many years ago is that such ‘propelling’ of the ball by an airborne player that grasps a pass but doesn’t complete the catch by returning to the ground inbounds is to be considered batting of the ball, and not a pass. This interpretation came about as a result of a play in the Peach Bowl the previous season, where a defensive player secured the opponent’s forward pass while airborne and then propelled the ball forward to a teammate. The crew (Jon Bible, Mike Liner, et al) conferred and ruled illegal forward pass, penalized B 5 yards from the spot, and awarded B a series. Both teams were OK with the ruling on the field. But Adams made the interpretations in the following months, to clarify the rule, making it batting, and not a pass.
Yes, batting a backward pass forward by the passing team is illegal, made so to prevent A from batting a snap forward, particularly on 4th and short, for a recovery beyond the NZ for a first down.
Thanks to Legacy for the correction.
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and a pass (forward or backward) may be batted in any direction in the field of play, by any player eligible to touch the ball.
I agree on the end result, but this is not 100% true. First, it doesn’t matter if it’s in the field of play or end zone. Second, the OP is the one exception to this rule. A player of the passing team may not bat a backward pass forward. A10 has illegally batted this backward pass toward. It is a 10 yard penalty that does NOT include a loss of down. If Team B recovers as in the OP, they would obviously decline the penalty anyway. But if A recovers it could make difference.
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I knew this sounded familiar, I came across this thread not too long ago looking up something similar:
http://www.refstripes.com/forum/index.php?topic=8980.0
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And just to add, this is not one of those fantasy plays. This happened in a college game except in the game the back caught the ball instead of it hitting the ground. Hopefully it was a fluke event and doesn't happen Saturday. That's one explanation I don't think the mic would be working on. ;D