Hideout Play
 

I know the rules relating to this play (illegal in both NF and NCAA codes) has been discussed on here. I was wondering if anyone knew how long this type of play had been illegal under the NCAA rules? Coaches are still running it -- some with success (see ND vs. USC this year) and HS coaches, for some idiotic reason, think its legal or CAN be legal under certain circumstances.

I'd like to know a little more about the history of the rule.

Hideout” plays, in which a substitute or an apparently replaced player takes a position near the sideline to deceive opponents, were banned in 1942 by the NFHS. The NCAA followed suit in 1953 (NFHS 9-6-4d; NCAA 9-4-2b).


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rulemakers have made it almost impossible to run the hideout play successfully

Actually, in NFHS, the rulemakers made it impossible to even run the hideout play.

REPLY: "Hideout" plays were actually illegal (penalty was suspension) back in 1914. Amos Alonzo Stagg had his own special defense against hideout plays. He placed a trumpeter up at the highest point in the stadium and had him blow a "charge" when he saw a hideout play developing to alert his defense of the hanky-panky. The Rules Committee tried throughout the 20s, 30s, and 40s to eliminate, but everytime they made a rule to prohibit them, the coaches would find a way around the new rule. In 1942, the Committee actually made a deal with the coaches: They agreed to pass a rule allowing unlimited substitution if the coaches agreed to stop using hideout plays on the basis of ethics. We all know how well that worked...

Always let the play go and hit them with UC? As the snap is imminenet shut it down and go Illegal Substitution? I know of a Referee that recognized A was running a hideout-blew his whistle/killed the clock and yelled to B while pointing at A11 "Do you have that player covered on the sideline?". I realize there are plenty of reason's not to do it that way-but really liked this mechanic.