Defense Mimicing Snap Count
 

NCAA. On Sat, there were accusations of UCLA mimicking the WSU snap count, causing several false starts. I've seen this at the HS level (Fed), and it is pretty obvious and we've penalized a USC on the player.

Two questions for the NCAA folk. Does U monitor for this? I get defensive play calls/coverage/etc, but one would think it would be obvious after the 5th or 6th time if it was an attempt to disrupt A's signals. Is this a foul in NCAA and if so, on whom and what call? USC?

Yes, it's a foul in NCAA rules, but in NCAA it's only a 5-yard delay-of-game penalty. (7-1-5-a-3, if you're curious).

Also, according to a recent memo from Rogers, the defense clapping can be considered a foul under this rule (since a lot of offenses have gone to using a clap for as a snap count).

The umpire does monitor this, but I'd imagine that in some of the bigger/louder stadiums at the D1 level it's rather hard to hear. At the levels I work, I've yet to encounter that problem. :)

And I enforce it mechanically the same way for both FED and NCAA... if the disconcerting signals DON'T cause an offensive false start, it's nothing more than a stern talking-to on the first occurrence. If they disconcerting signals DO cause a false start, go straight to the Unsportsmanlike (FED) or delay-of-game (NCAA) foul.

I am! Thanks. This is just what I was looking for.

Well, this was a home game at WSU, and it wasn't loud when this happened. I wondered why WSU had so many false starts on the center (and one snap infraction). After a flag, there was a long crew discussion. The center was pleading his case, but they settled on a FS. In post-game discussion, there was some talk of the UCLA defense mimicking the snap sounds.

Absolutely. I've only seen it once, and it immediately caused a FS. I was working wing and ran in to say FS, but our U immediately pointed out a B player that had called out the count. We went straight to a USC, and it never happened again.