Quote:
Originally Posted by JasonTX
Per Rogers Redding, it is declined by rule, no score. With exception to illegal touching and intentional grounding, all other penalties are "distance penalties" regardless of where they occur.
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Then I think some research as to what the Rules Committee meant by "distance penalty" is in order. In the 2012 NCAA rule book, the phrase occurs exactly 3 times. Once is in 10-2-6, half-the-distance enforcements, and another is in the summary of penalties referencing that provision. The other is 5-2-6, "Fouls Between Downs".
Meanwhile "distance penalties" occurs twice. Once is in the provision referenced here, 8-3-4a, and the other is in 10-2-5, regarding penalties whose distance enforcement would result in free kick restraining lines inside the 5.
I find it very reasonable to interpret all of these occurrences as referring to the distance portion of a penalty that includes a distance enforcement. Otherwise, consider 5-2-6 in light of what "distance penalty" would have to mean as opposed to simply "penalty". The enforcement for
any infraction between downs that counts officially as a penalty includes a distance, so the word "distance" in "distance penalty" as used there is superfluous in distinguishing penalties. But as the Committee should not be thought to have put in a superfluous word, the only meaning left would be the distance
portion of a penalty. We know that it's possible to decline the distance portion of a penalty separately from the spot the penalty is taken from. So that's what "distance penalty" must mean wherever it occurs in the rule book.
Such a meaning is reasonable, because after possession changes on a try, there's never going to be a down repeated by what had been team B. The only penalties on team B of any consequence are those that prevent a score by B (in which case the spot is immaterial), those that result in a safety (as discussed here, where the distance is immaterial), and those that would be enforced on a succeeding down (which this provision explictly treats separately).
So although the Rules Committee could and should be clearer, Redding kicked this call.