Help clear this up for me. High School Rules

4th and 10 on A's 40 and A's Ball

PLAY- A1 goes to pass and while rushed intentionally grounds the ball. The pass is made from A's 35.

RESULT- B declines and 1st down at A's 40
B accepts and 1st down at A's 30 (5 yard penalty from the spot and loss of down)

COMMENT- Generally an accepted penalty can not cause a change of possession. But in this case A has forfeited this right when intentionally grounding the pass and giving up the series on downs.

Right-Wrong-Little of Both??????

Simple way to look at it is by the definition.

Loss of down means loss of the right to repeat the down.

The down was played, and by virtue of the LOD part of the penalty which occured during the down (which you are stating would be accepted), the down can not be repeated.

I think the loss of down penalties are all good.

When a team drops back to pass, generally, they are taking a greater risk (taking a sack) to get a bigger reward (more yardage). It seems to me that the majority of loss of down penalties are all designed to penalize a team for fouling when they took a greater risk.

I think loss of down on forward handing is good because it prevents a team from cheating in an attempt to reach the line to gain, especially on 4th down. Example:
A32 knowing he is 1 yard from getting to the line-to-gain hands the ball forward to A82 who is beyond the line-to-gain.

Bobo,
1st and 10 for B at the 30. I would never give B the option to decline the penalty in this situation.


The penalty did not cause the change of possession, the result of the enforcement with the loss of down left A short of the line to gain after 4th down.

A penalty itself never causes loss of possession. In this case the fact a penalty occurred and the down could not be replayed, the ball was turned over on downs.