Safeties on tries

[PSU213]

Originally posted by Schultj
I'm having trouble rationalizing the scenario in the case book 8.3.3. If the ball is muffed with a new force by B into K's endzone, what are K's options? To my they can: 1, recover the ball for a safety on the dead ball (one point for A), 2, let A recover for 2 points, or 3, kick/batt the ball out of bounds and take the penalty on the kickoff or preceeding spot, saving any points from being scored. What is the logic in not allowing B to at least run the ball out of the endzone to avoid the 1 point from being scored? This is a problem with not letting B score on tries.

I'm guessing you didn't mean to include "K" in your post.

If B bats the ball out of bounds A has a few choices. First, this is still a safety by Rule 8-5-2b since B's force put the ball in the EZ. A could take the 1 point and have B's batting foul assessed on the kickoff (5-3-5). If A needed (or wanted) the 2 points A could also choose to replay the try after enforcing B's foul. Enforcement in this case follows the same procedure as any other foul. If A fumbled behind the NZ, enforce from the previous spot; if A fumbled beyond the NZ, enforce from the end of the run (spot of the fumble).

As for letting B run it out of the EZ, I feel the rule needs to be uniform: either let B possess the ball on the try with the possibility of returning it for 2 pts. (NCAA rule), or have the down end when B possess the ball (Fed rule). I think that allowing B to possess and "return" a live ball on a try only if it is an attempt to get it out of their EZ, and then killing the play if/when B does get it out just creates one more exception in the rules we do not need.