Thoughts of officals on the A11 offense.

[Murd]

will it be legal next yr in HSFB?

[cmathews]

most likely not..

[mbyron]

As I posted in another thread, I'm predicting that the issue will come up before the rules committee this off-season. They will consider whether the A-11 is "good for football," whatever that means to the committee members.

They will also consider the fact that no other level of football allows the A-11, and so it doesn't conform to what most people expect from the game. For this reason, I believe that they will rewrite the numbering exception so that it more closely resembles the NCAA rule.

And that will be the end of the A-11.

[cmathews]

then throw into the mix that some states have already instructed officials to not allow it, and you have a pretty strong case that when a vote occurs it will be to do whatever it takes to not allow it. The easiest route here is as mr byron said to rewrite that particular area of the rule book.

[bisonlj]

As much publicity as it received in the off season and the numbers the creators promoted would use it, I have heard of very few instances. I wonder if that fact will be considered by the committee? They could think...nobody's doing it anyway so why waste our time reviewing the rule? Or...nobody's using it so changing this rule won't really affect that many people; let's get it over with. I just checked out there site and they don't seem to have a lot of teams announcing they are using it. It looks like it will probably die a quiet death. I have to hand it to them for their innovation.

There are probably several other rules that could be exploited like this. I always thought it might be interesting for a coach to try two forward passes behind the LOS when that rule was still in effect. That was probably too risky but I bet most DBs would let up once they saw the first forward pass.

[Mike L]

I'm trying not to.

[BktBallRef]

Originally Posted by bisonlj

They could think...nobody's doing it anyway so why waste our time reviewing the rule?

Historically, that's not the way they have voted. For example, see the rule changes on planned loose ball plays and multiple forward passes. Rarely used by anyone, they got rid of both.

[Robert Goodman]

Originally Posted by bisonlj

There are probably several other rules that could be exploited like this. I always thought it might be interesting for a coach to try two forward passes behind the LOS when that rule was still in effect. That was probably too risky but I bet most DBs would let up once they saw the first forward pass.

My school's varsity did it. Or maybe it was the other team, I forgot. (~40 yrs. ago.)

But that was different. Unlike A-11, it wasn't an unintended byproduct. According to their proceedings, shortly after Fed started making their own football rules instead of using NCAA's, they started looking at things to change. Allowing more than one forward pass per down was argued for and adopted within a few yrs.

The proceedings of those years were interesting for what was proposed & rejected as well as adopted changes. Only a few of the terminology changes were adopted. A proposal to award a TD for DPI in the end zone (or "score zone" if that terminology change had been adopted) never made it.

Robert