Quote:
Originally Posted by RealityCheck
North Carolina committed at least three live-ball fouls on this play...
1) Illegal procedure for having 5 men lined up in the backfield.
2) Illegal substitution for having 5 extra players leaving the field obviously not participating in the play at the snap.
3) Illegal participation for having 12 players on the field in formation and not attempting to leave the field at the snap.
Obviously the illegal participation foul would have been elected to be enforced by Tennessee if it had been given the option.
A.R. 9-1-5 provides the basis for why illegal participation and not illegal substitution was the correct call....
Approved Ruling 9-1-5
I. Team A, with 12 men on the field of play, snaps at its 40-yard line and throws a complete or incomplete forward pass. RULING: Illegal participation. Penalty--15 yards from the previous spot.
VII. At the end of third down, Team B sends in its kick-return team. The responsible officials count the Team B players and it appears that Team B has 12 players on the field of play. While the officials are attempting to recount the players, the ball is snapped. At the end of the down, the officials recount the Team B players and are positive that Team B had 12 players participate during the down. RULING: Illegal participation on Team B. Penalty--15 yards from the previous spot. (Note: If the officials are not positive that a team has violated Rule 3-5-2-c, they should not sound their whistles and penalize the team five yards for a substitution violation.)
The officials were obviously not positive that North Carolina had 12 players in its offensive formation at the snap on this spike play, and there were obviously 12 players on the field at the end of the play. The illegal participation call was cut and dried, and it should have been made by the replay official since the field officials missed it.
If North Carolina had played with 11 players in formation and not five in the backfield, then the illegal substitution call for the extra players leaving the field at the snap would have been the correct call as the only foul on the play. But illegal participation and illegal substitution were both live-ball fouls. Any conference manuals that state that a replay offcial cannot review this live-ball situation would seem to be in violation of both A.R. 9-1-5 and Rule 12-3-5-a. The replay official has the power to review the illegal participation under 12-3-5-a, "The number of players participating by either team during a live ball."
I think much of the confusion is that two different parts of the illegal substitution rule are in play here. What the replay official could not review would be the dead-ball foul for having 12 players on the field prior to the snap. The live-ball illegal substitution foul that was called was for having players in excess of 11 leaving the field while the ball is in play. The live-ball illegal substitution foul doesn't cancel out illegal participation if 12 players remain on the field, while you can't have illegal participation when a dead-ball illegal substitution foul is called.
If the illegal substitution had been a dead-ball foul, more than one second would have been the correct time to put on the clock.
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You unfortunately lost a lot of credibility using the term "illegal procedure" at the beginning of this post. There is no such foul in any rule book and only exists in the words of announcers. This would be an illegal formation. You are correct though that they could have had an illegal formation with 5 players in the backfield.
Your AR play for illegal participation doesn't fit completely because that is assuming there was a play involving all 12 players (a scrimmage kick). In this play, the extra players did not actually participate. Just because they were on the field at the snap does mean they participated. I think you can support an IP call if it had been called but I think the appropriate call in this case was illegal substitution. There is the letter of the rules and the spirit and philosophy of the rules.