Alabama-Auburn
 

During the Alabama punt at 8:40 in the 1st quarter, why did the official blow the return dead?

Edit: I guess the BJ thought the returner made the fair-catch signal.

The rule is when a returner waves his players off like that, it is the same as a fair catch. It kills the play.

I may be way off base, but from what I've seen, there basically is no invalid FC signal in NCAA.

I agree. It seems they decided to do away with it, and just blow the play dead when the receiver gives the wave off.

An invalid signal causes the ball to become dead. It's not a foul in NCAA. In 13 years that I've been using NCAA rules its never been a foul. It just causes the ball to become dead.

Well then since it has the same effect as a valid one then in reality it isn't.

He just isn't provided any protection that a valid signal would provide.

They used to have illegal fair catch signal as well as invalid one, but did away with it. Over a long period of time the fair catch provisions in NCAA (and its predecessor rules committee) were tinkered with so often that John Wilson chose to highlight (along with changes in the substitution provisions) the changes in his 1976 booklet on the centenary of the football rules committee. Interestingly, not long after that booklet came out, those provisions settled down. I wonder whether his booklet had any influence on that.

Not completely. You're only considering half of the rule.