A-11 Offense ??

[ajmc]

Originally Posted by JasonTX

The NCAA code wants the field to be "level" I'd reccomend you do some reading in the section that deals with substitutions and you'll get a good dose of rules that make deceptions illegal.

Thank you for your suggestion ,JasonTX, but my concerns are currently limited to the rules code that applies to the other 48 States. In the NFHS environment, we have access to a "Case Book", that is an official extension of the NFHS Rule Book and provides official interpretations to a variety of play situations.

Under the "Unfair Act" section (NF: 9.9.3.Situation B) a play situation relating to the "Where's the TEE" type play advises, "Football has been and always will be a game of deception and trickery involving multiple shifts, unusual formations and creative plays." It goes on to relate specifically to plays using "actions or verbiage designed to confuse the defense into believing there is a problem and a snap is not imminent is beyond the scope of sportsmanship and is illegal".

Personally, I think the "A-11 Offense" is impractical because it requires an extraordinary level of perfect compliance with a series of existing formational and player movement rules, by an entire formation, that I doubt many teams can execute, properly, consistently. I simply believe holding teams responsible for consistent compliance to these existing rules, is a more effective way to control it's application, than trying to twist some, unfortunately, ambiguous verbiage to align with a personal interpretation that the written rules do not support.

"Where's the TEE" is an example of a concept extending beyond legality, that ultimately it, and an unending variety of alternatives, have been declared excessive and illegal. There are currently a series of requirements, in the rules, that are extremely difficult, for an a-11 offense to comply with on a consistent basis, which may well simply render the concept ineffective.