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The key is that the receiver is airborne and really hasn't yet completed the catch of the pass. He therefore may "bat" it in any direction.
That play you have a video of (Peach Bowl) was the first time anyone can recollect it actually happening in a game. Yet a play like that was on a preseaon test a few years earlier (maybe '98) but with the typical way you might see it as an A-player batting it to another eligble A-player. I can positively state my NCAA chapter at the time discussed this play heatedly in an early season (july) meeting in 2000. I flipped out when I saw it actually happen months later. A top Referee in a major 1A conference who was also a member of my chapter later in 2000 said if such a play were to occur it was a legal play.
Bottom line is it has been legal at all times (both codes). The crew in that game incorrectly flagged the play because of confusion I suppose. While some say there was a rule change made for 2001, all that really was done the following year, was to put in an AR using the words "propel" rather than "bat". It applied to both team-A and to team-B.
I don't think a play like this has been seen since that game.
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