Backward Pass...or not.

[Reffing Rev.]

Can you really say it contradicts the rule when the rules say both. How hard is this...

No contact: direction of pass determined by initial direction
Contact: direction of pass determined by movement of the arm at contact.

[JasonTX]

In NCAA, as others have stated, if the arm starts forward and the player is hit and the pass goes backwards, it IS and incomplete pass.

[mbyron]

Originally Posted by Reffing Rev.

Can you really say it contradicts the rule when the rules say both. How hard is this...

No contact: direction of pass determined by initial direction
Contact: direction of pass determined by movement of the arm at contact.

Good point. The appearance of a contradiction might be removed by distinguishing different cases or marking exceptions.

Still, you could avoid even the appearance of contradiction by simply defining the direction of the pass as the direction the arm starts to move. That's in fact what's doing all the work in the rule as it is.