Throw out-of-bounds pass negates ineligible receiver?
 

New poster here. Saw a strange (to me) call yesterday in the FL State v NC State game. I can't find a rule book anywhere online without buying it. Found this forum and figured you guys could validate or overrule the call. What do you guys think?

QB scrambled outside of tackle box then threw ball out of bounds to avoid a sack. Flag for ineligible receiver was picked up because as ref said, "QB legally threw the ball away". Really? Seems to me that this should be considered an incomplete pass. Why should the offense be let off the hook?

Are you sure the flag wasn't picked up for a possible intentional grounding?

Positive. I taped the game and watched the relay. Ref says there is no penalty for illegal receiver down field because the QB legally threw the ball away.

First things first, welcome to the forum.

The NCAA Rulebooks can be downloaded without paying for them. You just have to do a little more looking than you would think to find the actual copy of the rulebook.

That being said, I would have to look up the NCAA rule on this. There are a lot of exceptions in NCAA rules and I would not be surprised if this was one of them.

Peace

What exact time did the play in question occur?

I am not finding anything that absolves a penalty for IRD because of a ball being thrown away. I could be wrong, I am just not finding anything in this case.

Peace

5:24 left in 1st quarter. The full R quote is "There is no foul on the play for an ineligible receiver down field because the QB legally threw the ball away." When they announce the decision you can see Jimbo Fisher yelling "why isn't that a penalty?"

If you have a link that would be nice. A lot of the sites I tried were kinda iffy, loading animated pop-ups and such. One triggered my anti-virus to put up a warning.

It is on the NCAA website. All the rulebooks are downloadable.

NCAA Rulebook

Not trying to be funny, I did a Google search and there it was. ;)

Peace

This is not a rule but a commonly accepted philosophy.

Not just a commonly accepted philosophy, one printed in the CCA manual.

I went there but moved on too quickly when I saw the $7.80 price tag at the top. I missed the free download options lower down. Shame on me.

Edit: Sorry guys I need to learn to read better. Ignore the original relpy below. So it's not a rule but a "philosophy". How do philosophies apply? You can apply a philosophy when there is no specific rule? My goodness I never thought reffing went to such depths. Hat's off to all you guys! I promise to never yell at a ref again! :-) I'll download the rules (and philosphies) when I get home to see what I can learn.

==========================
original reply:
So it is the rule? Wow. Kudos the to refs. I have to say though that I don't understand the logic. Apparently throwing the ball away is not considered a pass. Seems like there might be ways to "game the system". Maybe QB rolls out with intention to run having linemen down field. If the play collapses and looks like it will be a loss then toss the ball out of bounds to at least negate the loss with an "incompete pass".

Thanks Rev for the answer.

BTW, I'm not impartial in the inquiry. Diehard Seminole. Glad to have it cleared up, in my mind at least.
==========================

As Welpe said, it's a commonly accepted philosophy rather than an official 'rule'... the theory is that there's no advantage gained by Team A in this situation.

I'll leave out the "but what if there's a foul on the defense during the down?" wailing and gnashing of teeth for another day.

Philosophies are developed around existing rules with the purpose of creating consistency in enforcement and helping to ensure the game is called as expected. A more well known example of a philosophy is that holding should not be called if it has no material effect on the play. While a player holding a defender well away from the point of attack violates the written rule, the established spirit of the rule says that this should not be called a foul because there was not an advantage gained.