Iron Bowl: Joint Possession/Simultaneous Catch
 

Happened in the third quarter. Auburn threw a pass downfield which was ruled to have been jointly possessed by opposing receivers. (The Alabama receiver touched the ground first.) The play was reviewed and upheld and Auburn kept possession.

However, Mike Pereira (and Dave Cutaia later) tweeted that it should have been Alabama's ball because "A simultaneous catch is when two receivers get control of the ball in the air and come down to the ground at the same time." Therefore, "since the Alabama player came down first, it is not a simultanous catch and it is his ball per rule."

I know that under NFHS rules, the order in which the players land is insignificant with regards to whether or not a catch is simultaneous. I assumed the rule was different under NCAA, but Rule 2-4-4 says nothing about coming to the ground at the same time; it merely states, "A simultaneous catch or recovery is a catch or recovery in which there is joint possession of a live ball by opposing players inbounds."

So, what am I missing here that Mike Pereira knows and I don't?

See 2-4-1a. There really does seem to be a race to the ground in consequence. This is confirmed by AR 7-3-6II in the Interpretations. That's got to be a tough call when opposing players catch the ball while running, because it means you'd really have to see who has a foot next alight, since somebody running has both feet off the ground for much of the time.

The NF rule is actually 2-4-3, and the difference between it, and the NCAA rule is there is no stipulation, or requirement, related to who touches the ground first, or in what sequence. The only requirement is joint possession.

There are many in NCAA who believe there is no such thing as a simultaneous catch. One of the players caught it first, and it's up to the judgment of the official to determine which one did.

But by rule everything Pereira said is true. If they did announce simultaneous possession and the defensive player came down first, then it should have been an interception.

Something else interesting is NCAA 4-1-3l. The ball is dead, the players not being allowed to wrestle it away from each other, nor to advance it.

Here's a good one: opponents catch the ball, and the first to touch the ground does so out of bounds. Is the ball dead, no possession, or does it remain in play for the opponent to possibly gain possession of by touching ground in bounds? 4-2-3a says in part: "A ball not in player possession...is out of bounds when it touches the ground, a player, a game official or anything else that is out of bounds,..." In the case I pose, we have a ball not in player possession that's already touching a player when that player touches the ground; is that supposed to count as "when it touches", or not? That is, does "it touches" refer to an event or to a condition? It'd be clear if it said "touching" or "is touching" or "in contact with", etc.

There's rules support for that, because catch & recovery are defined in terms of control of the ball, and how can someone be said to have control unless it's exclusive? The argument against that would be the argument against superfluity, i.e. that the rules wouldn't have all the verbiage about simultaneous catch or recovery if it didn't exist.