ACC Championship Offside Call

[Robert Goodman]

Originally Posted by Suudy

Interesting quote (emphasis mine):

Offsides is not a reviewable play," said the spokesperson. "Dennis Hennigan (ACC director of officiating) said that mechanically the officials were in the correct position. The rule as it relates to to an onside kick that the 35-yard line is treated as a plane and if any part of a player breaks that plane before the ball is kicked it's offsides. The officials saw a member of the kicking team break the plane before the ball was kicked.

Fans react to controversial call in ACC Championship | abc11.com

Is there such an interpretation regarding onside kicks? If your index finger breaks the plane it is offsides?

It's been that way about 110 yrs. Previously it'd been foot position.

[HLin NC]

I went to bed Saturday night because it appeared that all the teams in the lead appeared to have it in the bag, save Iowa.

I've perused the Raleigh News And Observer for two days and very little mention of it after a small initial article. They went bonkers after the Duke loss to Miami and Carolina is THE school so apparently the hubbub isn't that big a deal.

[BktBallRef]

Originally Posted by HLin NC

I went to bed Saturday night because it appeared that all the teams in the lead appeared to have it in the bag, save Iowa.

I've perused the Raleigh News And Observer for two days and very little mention of it after a small initial article. They went bonkers after the Duke loss to Miami and Carolina is THE school so apparently the hubbub isn't that big a deal.

Not surprising. You don't find much about Carolina in the N&O anymore unless the words "NCAA investigation" are also included.

[Suudy]

Originally Posted by Robert Goodman

It's been that way about 110 yrs. Previously it'd been foot position.

I mean with regard to onside situations, which seems to be the distinction the ACC official is making. Seems a ticky-tacky cop out to me.

[Rich]

Originally Posted by Suudy

I mean with regard to onside situations, which seems to be the distinction the ACC official is making. Seems a ticky-tacky cop out to me.

We always treat onside situations as an absolute plane. On deep kickoffs, they're fine unless a foot lands offside before the ball is kicked.

That said, I can't see how anyone could possibly be offside based on the screen shots I've seen, even accounting for parallax issues.

[Just4Kicks]

NCAA rules, RULE 6, Section 1, Article 2.c.5:

All players of Team A must have been between the nine-yard marks
after the ready-for-play signal [S19].

Take another look at the video, only don't make the mistake others have made in considering it a violation of the 4-men-per-side rule, which draws everyone's attention away from the actual infraction by focusing attention on the upper part of the screen. Instead, focus on the lower part of the screen, and you will see that the closest player to the near side of the field in the video is lined up outside the hash marks, in violation of this rule.

Now I'm no expert on what the call technically should be for this violation, i.e., whether that is still called an offsides infraction, or perhaps illegal formation or something else. But the official got it right, he was looking right at him when he threw the flag. At worst, he would be guilty of calling it by the wrong name, not making a bad call.

But I'm guessing that the call would still be offside rather than illegal formation, because the infraction is basically the same thing that happens with the normal offside call, it simply involves being offside in regard to the width of the field rather than the length.