There was a hurdling penalty against Texas in the OU game. After the defender hurdled over the line illegally he blocked the extra point. OU declined the penalty in order to keep the extra point try at 20 yards, instead of moving closer and reducing their angle for a poor kick.

My question is.....how could they decline the penalty and still get another opportunity at the try? If they decline the penalty the result of the play should stand, which was try no good. Can a team accept a penalty and refuse the yardage portion of it?

Or did our bretheren in Dallas goof on this play?

Can the yardage for any penalty be declined? I know it can in NF play. It's one of the Football Fundamentals.

In Federation rules, the distance penalty for any foul may be declined. I do not know the NCAA rule.

NCAA: If this hurdling occurred prior to the snap or right at the snap, it is a dead ball foul. I.E. the play never happened.
Regardless, and this is another one of the many NCAA/NF differences, the entire penalty must be declined and that includes the yardage.

My take is, and I did not see this is that the play never happened because it was a dead ball foul, the kicking team can decline the dead ball foul and leave the ball right where it was.
If this was a live ball foul, then declining the foul would is not an option since the kick was blocked.

I did see the play.

The defender cleared the line in the air before the snap.

I do not remember if they ruled it deadball or live ball.

OU-UT
 

This was ruled a dead ball foul. The penalty was for defensive offsides (according to the broadcasters - you know how accurate they are). LOL!

[Edited by jumpmaster on Oct 13th, 2002 at 08:24 PM]