Hi all,
I just moved to the state of Massachusetts and so I'm trying to learn the differences between Fed rules I've gotten used to and NCAA rules used here. Problem is I was still a very new official last place I worked so I don't claim any mastery of Fed rules yet either and now I'm a jumbled mess of Fed, NCAA, *******ized adult leagues and pee-wee leagues.
I just went to my first officials meeting here in Mass and got a pamphlet for the 5 man mechanics they use (very different than I'm used to) and I have had a copy of NCAA rules for a few weeks now and have been reading it every night.
Anyhow, I've got a couple rules that appear to contradict things mentioned in our mechanics pamphlet and I'm wondering if I just don't know the NCAA rule well enough yet, if I'm misinterpreting the rules, if there's a Massachusetts modification to the NCAA rule that I don't know about yet, or what. So here it goes.
1) regular kickoff. mechanics pamphlet says "If the ball breaks the plane of the goalline, it is dead." Now, I thought in NCAA you could advance a kick that you caught in the endzone. Further...the situation I'm more worried about is this. Kick to say the 7 yard line and R muffs it. The ball continues into the endzone. I know that a muff doesn't change the fact that the force of the kick put the ball in the endzone so I'm not afraid of a safety situation, but does R have to go cover the ball or is it automatically a touchback because it broke the plane of the goalline? AR 8-7-2-VI says to me that R must cover it up to get the touchback.
2) probable onside kick situation - the mechanics pamphlet takes a special line to remind officials of R's restraining line but says if R is across that line before the ball is kicked then we are to kill the play. Rule 6-1-2-i is a live ball foul though. Why kill the play?
Anyhow, I'm sure there are some Mass officials on here. If these situations are simply Massachusetts modifications to the NCAA rulebook then that's cool. If you could help me find a list of these modifications then my study would be much easier. If I'm just misreading or misapplying the NCAA rulebook then please correct me.
If I don't get an answer from here then of course I'll bring these questions (and I'm sure a million more) to the group at our next meeting but I thought it'd be fun to try this forum out.
Thanks all. Sorry for the ridiculously long post.