Help!!! What's the difference between a charge and a player control foul in NCAA?

[Hawks Coach]

Dan,
I am not clear on why you believe that a defensive player can commit a charging foul. On reading NFHS rules, it is clear that a defender may not commit charging, even though the rules do not make an explicit statement of that fact. The only reference to charging anywhere in the rules (4-2-2 (a-d) and 10-6 (1 & 2)) refer to a player with the ball or a player who has shot and momentum carried him into defender. This is distinguished from pushing in 10-6-1, which happens when the defender runs into an offensive player in control of the ball. Nowhere is charging referenced with respect to any defender committing the foul, nor is that possibility suggested by the rules. While the momentum rule suggests there may be a subtle case in which a charging foul may not be player control (in the reference to momentum it does not say airborne shooter), in all other cases, a charge would be player control.

Technically speaking, you can have player control fouls that are not charges where the contact is not with the torso (an elbow to the face would qualify I guess). But any illegal contact with the torso by the player in control of the ball is charging. So the terms are fairly interchangeable in NFHS. The only difference between NCAA and NF that I know of is the airborne shooter rule which Mike referenced. Since this changes when you can call a PC foul, it may lead to more instances where charging is not PC - but I'd have to see an NCAA rule book to know whether they call a foul after release a charge. And I am not aware of a different NCAA definition of charging that allows a defensive player to commit this foul.