All you need is the first down chain and wing officials.

Besides, when R/B's restraining line is in their end zone, how serious is the encroachment problem? They're not defending against K/A's potential recovery.

Oh they aren't? So when A line drives a kick off the front B lineman's leg in an attempt to recover in the end zone, we can just guess if a B player is offside or not?

My guess is NCAA has this rule for two reasons. To reduce the instances of A trying to recover in the endzone and to prevent issues with judging offside.

Whose advantage would it be for him to encroach?

His, because he may be getting a head start on blocking.

Seriously? Your restraining line is behind your goal line, and you're looking at blocking?! :eek:

You know the kickoff is just going to be a dribbler. What kind of runback could you possibly get on that?

Robert, your questions continually betray the fact that you are not an official (I don't mean that as a putdown, just a fact).

Fans focus on what is probable; officials prepare themselves for what is possible.

But that's belied by the many remarks I've read here -- one even in this thread -- wherein it seems officials go out of their way to try to see to it that players don't do something stupid. What else would've been the purpose of explaining the situation to the captains as described upthread?

For Fed, is this play even possible? If B's (a.k.a. R's) free kick line has been backed up into the end zone, how could an 'on sides kick' work if:<table bgcolor="black"><tr>
<td><b><font color=white bgcolor=black>SECTION 3 TOUCHBACK</font></td>
</tr></table><b>ART. 1 . . . </b>It is a touchback if any free kick or scrimmage kick
a. Which is not a scoring attempt or which is a grounded three-point breaks the plane of R’s goal line...

No, not possible in Fed. It is in NCAA though.