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Originally Posted by Welpe
Then why have both the Federation and the NCAA have issued interpretations that this is clearly not out of bounds? I have to believe the NFHS meant exactly what they wrote both then and now.
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I think they may be a bit embarrassed at an oversight of long standing and are insincerely defending it.
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The IP rule in general is harsh in dealing with Team A players that have unintentionally stepped out of bounds. A receiver that is one step out of bounds and returns has committed IP and that is what the Fed wants so calling the OP IP is consistent with other situations. This is why I like the NCAA rule better.
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But at least a Fed player of A who is running approximately parallel to the sideline can be alert to the possibility of having stepped out of bounds and returned. This situation is likely to be different: a receiver running at a considerable angle to the sideline while looking back for the ball who doesn't know he has stepped on the sideline. Are you saying you would really flag for IP in the harmless case where such a player caught the ball or batted it in such a way that it became dead anyway? If not, you too must be acknowledging what I wrote, and hypocritically presenting a penalty option
only to prevent team A from benefiting in the unlikely, but not out of the realm of possibility, being discussed here and in the previous thread. Which means you know it should be an incomplete pass, and would be doing the next best thing by using selective enforcement to appear to uphold the letter of the rules, instead of ajmc's simply ruling incomplete openly.