http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_Trinity_vs._Millsaps_football_game
Wikipedia alleges this:
NCAA statistical guidelines state that the yardage on a play with multiple laterals goes to the ball carrier who had the ball the longest, or the player scoring a touchdown. This is done to simplify things for the official scorer, as opposed to having to record each independent lateral. As a result, the play-by-play record of the game officially records the play as "Blake Barmore pass complete to Shawn Thompson for 16 yards to the MSPS44, Riley Curry for 44 yards to the MSPS0, 1ST DOWN TRINITY, TOUCHDOWN, clock 00:00."
And we all know how accurate Wikipedia can be. The same article also says:
Maddux (#25) attempted a backwards pass, however the ball was tipped as he released it and bounced to the turf (technically making it a fumble)
which is patently false, at least from a rules perspective.
wikipedia is flat out, dead IDIOT wrong under the current rules. There are NUMEROUS cites in the NCAA Statitician's Manual that can prove this, but I'm a little too busy right now to copy them. I will have to check old books to see if this was true at one point in time.
Only one person gets gets the pass reception, but all who handled the ball will get "receiving yards" without a reception. The QB will recieve all of the yards in his passing yardage, so in this case, the QB threw a 60 yd TD pass.
Had the play been a rush, only the original ball carrier would be credited with a rushing attempt, but all who handled the ball would receive rushing yards (either positive or negative).
As for the backward pass that was tipped, statistically, that's a fumble. There are a number of differences in fumbles as recorded in statistics as compared to on filed rulings. The most common is a muffed punt. To an on field official, that is not a fumble. To the statistician, and thus in the NCAA records, it IS a fumble. The same would hold true with the backward pass that was dropped or knocked to the ground.
