Personally, I think the fundamentals should be removed from the rule book. They are completely unnecessary to the running of a game and, as we are finding out, aren't necessarily universal.

Table 6-4 (Page 55) is very clear ...

IF THE KICK BECOMES DEAD IN K’S END ZONE

If the force is:
1. The kick or any other new force by K.

Then the ruling is:
1. Safety, if the kick is out of bounds or K has
possession, including when the ball is loose

Since K's kick is what put the ball in the endzone, K better get it out of there.

The rules are very clear. I don't think anything else is being argued here.

and if R recovers it in the end zone it is a TD so K better just take the safety and kick it away.

;)

Their best option would be to advance it out if possible. In NCAA the ball is dead as soon as they gain possession. They don't have option of running out.

Or kick it out. It's not likely that team B would have players in position to block the kick, and the likeliest team A player to recover the ball would be the kicker. There's already been discussed here the case of a 2nd kick; in most circumstances, in view of the 1st down team A would get in the field of play, that would be a bad choice, but if the ball were recovered near the end line it might be a good one.

In certain situations, it would even be better to throw a forward pass that's sufficiently close to an eligible receiver to not be IG.

Here's a rule reference that may help us out here:

Rule 5-1-3-f:

"ART 3. When a scrimmage down ends with the ball in the field of play or out of bounds between the goal lines, a new series is awarded to:

f. The team in possession at the end of the down, if R is the first to touch a scrimmage kick while it is beyond the expanded neutral zone..."


Obviously this rule specifically intended to exclude when the ball is down IN the end zone. It appears the fundamental statement was taken from this rule, but they were sloppy by not writing it to exclude the end zone in the statement.

Some times you just take the safety and kick it away. ;)