Offsetting penalties

[The Roamin' Umpire]

Originally posted by mvp2jeter
What do you use to determine what penalties get enforced in multiple/double/complicated mess fouls?

The obvious answer is get in the book, especially Rule 10 of the NFHS code, which deals with penalty enforcement.

However, I do have a set of guidelines that summarize the NFHS version of things (other rule codes are similar, but not perfect matches):

• Enforce all dead-ball fouls, in order.
  
• No more than one live-ball penalty per team per down. [NFHS term: multiple foul]
  
• Barring a change of possession, live-ball fouls by both teams offset & replay, regardless of the yardage, etc. involved. [NFHS term: double foul]
  
• On change(s) of possession, the team with ball has the option to keep it if they had "clean hands*" when they got the ball. (*counting PSK)
  
• If the defense fouls on a score, the penalty may be marked off on the try/kickoff.
  
• Eject even if the penalty for the ejectable foul is declined.
  

More rules could easily be added, but this is my core set. (And the last one isn't really a "core" rule, but I consider it key from a game-control standpoint.)