NCAA kickoff
 

On kickoffs, the NCAA has left the umpire with the kicker, moved the HL up, and moved the R to the sideline at the goalline for kickoffs. It looks quite wierd. The question here is this--is their any real advantage to having the U stay in the middle of the field? In the NFL and in NF the BJ hands the ball to the kicker and then moves to the sidelines leaving no official in the center of the field and 3 officials deep. Just wondering why college mechanics are different on this?

1 thing is that someone has to be able to judge if there are at least 4 players on each side of the kicker when ball is kicked. This can be hard to do if they bunch up before the kick and run as a group towards the ball. Another reason is so that someone can get an inside-out look at the sction.