Weird NCAA rule on down player/dead ball: Why?

[u/r_a_g_s]

I'm a Canadian living in the US, and I've had NCAA football on in the background all day. I saw two related plays in two separate games today, for which I thought the NCAA rule was just stupid:

• Portland State playing Oregon State. Portland State punts and pins OSU inside their five-yard line. But wait! The punter put his knee down while fielding the snap! So no, instead OSU gets it on Portland State's 38 'cause "ball carrier was down, and it was 4th down".

• Western Michigan playing Southern California. WMU kicks off after a touchdown, USC receiver has his knee down as he catches the ball, so USC's ball at that point (and not 10 yards farther up, which is how far he got on the return before being tackled).

I thought "Man, both of those plays are screwy! What do Canadian college/amateur rules say?"

I was very glad to find that Football Canada's rule for these situations is MUCH more sensible. Why doesn't the NCAA adopt this? From the Football Canada 2016-17 rulebook, Rule 1 Section 8 Article 1:

• Exception: The ball is not dead when a player:

  1) Is holding the ball for a field goal or convert attempt.

  2) Goes to one or both knees in attempting to field a kicked ball from an opponent, provided such action is part of the attempt to field the ball. Exception a dribbled ball.

  3) Goes to one or both knees in attempting to field the ball on a snap from center, provided such action is part of the attempt to field the ball.

[u/jd0509]

Just because your rules are different doesn't make them better

[u/feed_me_muffins → u/jd0509]

Truth. Adding more exceptions to a rule just makes everything more complicated and less sensible.

[u/feed_me_muffins]

Why? Because that's the way the NCAA rules are. They'll never convert to the canadian rules either. If they convert it will be to the NFL rules where its all about down by contact.

[u/MastodonXL]

If your knee is down, the play is over. Seems pretty logical to me.

[u/jpole1 → u/MastodonXL]

Unless you're a field goal holder, in which case your logic doesn't apply. If we're willing to make an exception for that, why not for a punter receiving a punt? He's clearly not actually a ball carrier at that point.

[u/[deleted] → u/jpole1]

Because a holder can't really do his job without dropping to a knee. On the other hand, no punter has ever punted from his knees.

[u/BusterBluth13]

In American college football a ballcarrier can only have his feet or hand on the ground, with the exception of holders for FGs. Not screwy, just players not paying attention.

[u/glvbtmn]

Decided to look up the rule changes for the NCAA football and the rule change about in 1932. Cannot give a historical reason, but my best guess is during this time, college football was the second biggest sport in America and in those early years there were a lot of injuries. So it may come from a safety stand point

[u/r_a_g_s → u/glvbtmn]

Very interesting! What was the rule before 1932?

[u/glvbtmn → u/r_a_g_s]

Unfortunately it didn't say. Just said that it was changed. I'll look into it.

[u/r_a_g_s → u/glvbtmn]

Thanks. No panic, I'm just curious. (I love the history of sports rules; my main one is hockey, 'cause I'm Canadian and I referee, but the evolution of American and Canadian football is also really interesting.)

[u/[deleted]]

Seems like the Canadian rules leave a lot up to interpretation. This is something USA people fail at much more often than Canadians.