Illegal Forward Pass?

[bucblue]

7-5-1 (Fed) states that if both feet of the passer are in or behind the neutral zone when the ball is released, it is a legal forward pass, as long as the other requirements are met. Whether he was previously beyond the neutral zone isn't addressed, so since it isn't against the rules, it must be legal. So "f" is the correct answer, and A would accept the penalty and probably enforce it on the kickoff.

[wisref2]

what he said.

[Texas Aggie]

NCAA: b, d, and e are correct.

[cmathews]

I am not sure that E is correct in NCAA and also I believe C would be correct in the NCAA

[dldsooner]

I know that there is nothing in the case book or rules book that says this is an illegal play, but it goes against everything I have ever been taught about an illegal forward pass. If the coach's ever figured this out, can you imagine what kind of plays would be drawn up and ran?

Thanks everyone for your taking time to read and post to this bizarre situation.

[waltjp]

Before they changed the rule a few years ago to make it illegal to throw more than 1 forward pass during a down it would have been possible for:

A12 to throw a forward pass beyond the LOS to A20;
A20 could then throw a backward pass to A40 who was behind the LOS;
A40 could then throw a forward pass 30 yards beyond the LOS to A80.

This was all legal as long as each forward pass was thrown from behind the LOS.

[Robert Goodman]

Originally Posted by dldsooner

I know that there is nothing in the case book or rules book that says this is an illegal play, but it goes against everything I have ever been taught about an illegal forward pass. If the coach's ever figured this out, can you imagine what kind of plays would be drawn up and ran?

There are versions of the buck lateral pass play in which the middle link man is a lineman who has turned to face his own end line. Because of this rule the officials don't have to determine whether the ball crossed the neutral zone before being handed off to him.

Robert