Horse Collar Rule NCAA vs. FED
 

Was watching the Nebraska-Missouri game last night, and the R's flag on Suh (#93) from Nebraska for the horse collar on Gabbert (MU QB) in the 2nd half got me to wondering if there's a difference between the FED's wording of the horse collar rule and the NCAA's. It appears Suh grabbed Gabbert by the back of the jersey, between the name and the number, and the R threw the flag for a horse collar. To me, it didn't fit the FED's definition, so it made me wonder. Thanks for any clarification.

The only real differences between the 2 rules sets are:
NCAA says the tackle must be "immediate" while NFHS says "subsequent".
NCAA allows HC's to runners in the tackle box or QB's in the pocket.

Not an NCAA guy, but I know that the FED requires that the runner be "subsequently" pulled down.

The NCAA rules also require that the player must grab the inside of the jersey or inside of the shoulder pads.

"All players are prohibited from grabbing the inside back collar of the
shoulder pads or jersey, or the inside collar of the side of the shoulder
pads or jersey, and immediately pulling the ball carrier down."

Of course, I'm not a college official, nor do I play one on TV. But based on your description I think the R didn't see it clearly and erred on the side of safety.

I saw the play. Granted I live in NE, it looked awefully close. I had no problem with the flag. Here's why:

The danger in the horsecollar tackle is in the extra stress on the lower extremeties, and grabing a fist ful of the near collar and pulling the runner down has the same effect. I'm not going to initiate a letter vs. spirit of the rule debate, but it may have been a collar, and it may have not, but the effect was the same. When in doubt...error on the side of safety right?

My crew got to talking about this call last night as we were getting ready for our game. All 5 of us agreed it wasn't a good call, even with erring on the side of safety, because if you looked where the jersey was grabbed, it was too far from the collar to even come close to the definition of a HC. A couple of us made the observation that the white hat didn't really have a good look at it because of how he followed the play. I just wanted the definition so I knew how much difference there was in the rule sets. Thanks.