Intramural Flag Football Captains Meeting Guidelines

JHU Intramurals Flag Football Captains Meeting Sept. 8, 2017 Gabby Castellano Troy Zuccaro Assistant Director - Intramurals Coordinator of Officiating

Flag Football Captains Meeting Administrative Matters The Rules in brief Points of Emphasis

Administrative Matters

Administrative Matters Eligibility Forfeits Sportsmanship Ejections Uniforms Game Cards Points of contact

Eligibility You must be a Rec Center member in order to play. No J-Card, no play. Must play during regular season to be playoff-eligible. Max players per team is 20.

Forfeits If your team forfeits a game without notice, you are ineligible for playoffs. If your team is going to forfeit, please let the intramural staff know by emailing jhuintramurals@gmail.com and gabby@jhu.edu . One free default during the regular season, must inform intramurals before noon on day of game. Game time is forfeit time. We run on a tight schedule so please be at your game 10 minutes ahead of time.

Sportsmanship Sportsmanship is paramount here. Ratings are on a 0-4 point scale, scored by the game officials. Teams exhibiting poor sportsmanship will be noted, and a team averaging a sportsmanship score less than 2.5/4 will be ineligible for playoffs.

Ejections Any player ejected for a flagrant foul or unsportsmanlike conduct will be suspended from all intramural activities, and must meet with Gabby to be reinstated. The participant must email Gabby to set-up a meeting. gabby@jhu.edu

Uniforms Your team should all wear the same color shirt. Better yet, bring two colors of shirt, just in case both teams want to wear the same color. You don t want to have to wear pinnies. No jewelry except medical (may be visible) or religious (must be taped down). No casts. No billed hats or caps. Beanies are OK. No rubber or leather wristbands, Fitbits, watches, etc. This is a safety issue and will be strictly enforced.

Game cards Official will give out game cards with their names on it. There is no longer a procedure to rate an official. If you do not receive a game card from the officials, please email gabby@jhu.edu . You won t get anyone fired, we just want to make sure our officials know that they re required to hand them out.

Whom to contact Contact Gabby gabby@jhu.edu regarding: Issues with player and team registration, scheduling and scores If you get ejected from a game If you are forfeiting a game Contact the intramural staff at jhuintramurals@gmail.com , Rohan rgupta37@jhu.edu and Neil ngahart1@jhu.edu regarding: Issues with scheduling If you are forfeiting a game Contact Troy tzuccar1@jhu.edu regarding: Rules interpretation / officiating-related questions

The Rules, in brief

The Game (Rules changes / clarifications are highlighted in blue) NCAA rules, with exceptions. 7 v 7 flag football Co-ed must have 3 girls on the field at any time. 20 minute running-time halves (22 mins in playoff semis and finals) Last 2 minutes of the game are stop-time per NCAA rules Exception: no 10-second runoffs for B, Coed 3 timeouts per game No OT until playoffs

The Field 80 yards, with two 10-yard end zones. Cones will mark the out-of-bounds lines. We don t use a chain crew for the line-to-gain. Instead, the 20, 40, and 20 yard lines denote the zones of the field. Advancing the ball into the next zone gives your team a first down.

Scrimmage plays Someone has to snap the ball from the ground, and it can t be a hand-to-hand snap. Rationale: QB sneaks from under center are not safe in this league. Snap doesn t have to be through the legs. There is no longer a requirement for offense to have 4 players on the line of scrimmage. 3- and 4- point stances are not allowed. The defense must be a yard beyond the ball when it is snapped. Offside and false starts are dead-ball fouls- no free plays and no chance for the defense to get back.

Fumbles Fumbles and backward passes are dead once they hit the ground neither team may recover them. Backward passes are placed at the spot it hit the ground. Fumbles are placed where they hit the ground or the spot of the fumble, whichever is further back.

Flags and tackling The flag belt must be over the shirt, and placed so that the flags are at the player s hips and tailbone at the start of every down. The ball carrier may not use an arm or the ball to guard his flags or ward off a defender attempting to grab the flags. The ball carrier may not dive or slide to advance the ball, nor go to the ground in any other dangerous manner. Penalty: Flag Guarding. 5 yards plus loss of down. If this occurs after the line-to-gain is reached, the first down is still awarded. A defender may not hold the ball carrier, nor may he tackle the ball carrier. Penalty: Illegal contact or holding, 5 or 10 yards, respectively. Tackling, 15 yards and possible ejection.

Blocking It is recommended that blocking done with arms behind the back. Arms in front or the body, flared elbows, or arms out to the side puts you at risk of a foul. No charging into or initiating positive contact with an opponent. Penalty: Illegal contact or holding, 5 or 10 yards, respectively. Low blocks or blocks in the back are never legal. Penalty: Illegal block, 10 yards. 15 yards if violent.

Contact New rule interpretation at all levels: Any contact to the snapper who has just snapped the ball is a foul. A rusher has an obligation to avoid the snapper who has just snapped the ball and is attempting to block a rusher. If the snapper moves forward, however, he forfeits this protection. Severe infringement may be penalized as a personal foul.

Contact For Open B, Dorm, and Coed games only, the contact rule includes the following: Illegal Contact: Any movement which initiates material avoidable contact to an opponent, regardless of whether such contact is intentional or direct. The responsibility is on the player to avoid contact with the opponent. This rule is not applied to A or Frat games, where contact must still be intentional or reckless direct contact.

Passer / ball carrier protections A player may not swat the ball out of the passer s hand, nor may he initiate contact to the passer s arm. Penalty: Roughing the Passer. 10-15 yards and an automatic first down. No player may strip the ball from another player. Penalty: Illegal contact or Personal foul. 5 yards, or 10 + AFD.

Passing No 5 yard contact rule like the NFL, but initiating contact with an opponent is still a foul for illegal contact. All players are eligible to receive a pass. Pass Interference is penalized by NCAA rules. One foot or other body part with control = catch. Only one forward pass is allowed per down. You are allowed to run beyond the line, then run back behind it and pass. Intentionally grounding the ball or throwing the ball out of bounds to stop the clock is illegal. There is no tackle box rule. Penalty: 5 yards + loss of down.

Kicking Kickoffs to start each half from the 30. After a touchdown, the scored-on team will get the ball at the 10. After a safety, the team that got scored on will kick off from its 10 yard line.

Punts On 4th down, a team may choose to punt. No kicking team players can go downfield until the ball is kicked, and no defensive players can rush the punter. A defender may stand at the line of scrimmage to try and block a punt. If you declare that you re punting, you have to punt. If you declare that you re going for it, you may not punt. Also, you have to punt, as in actually kick the ball. There is no more punting by throwing the ball, at any level. A ball that hits the ground is live. If it is muffed or fumbled, it becomes dead. If the kicking team recovers, the ball is dead and belongs to the receiving team. Kicks and punts may be returned out of the end zone if caught.

Scoring A touchdown is 6 points, and the opportunity to go for an extra point worth 1, 2, or 3 points: 1 point from the 3 yard line 2 points from the 10 yard line 3 points from the 20 yard line A safety is worth 2 points. If either team fouls on an extra point play, there is no option to change the point value. Touchbacks are placed at the 10.

Co-Ed modifications Open / Closed rule now applies to all plays. If a play gains positive yards not involving a female, the next play that gains positive yards must involve a female. A play involves a female if: a female passed the ball across the line of scrimmage, or possessed the ball beyond the line of scrimmage at any point. Male runs through the line of scrimmage are OK if your team is open . A female run for positive yards while your team is closed will now make your team open . If a female scores a touchdown, either by running the ball across the goal line or throwing a forward pass that leads directly to a touchdown, it s worth 9 points.

Open/Closed Plays PLAY: 1st down for Team A from their own 30 yd line. A is open. Male A1 takes the snap and runs to the 35 yd line where he is deflagged. RULING: Legal. A will be closed next play. PLAY: 2nd down for Team A from their own 35 yd line. A is now closed. Female A2 takes the snap and throws a screen pass to male A3, who is standing at their 34 yd line. A3 runs to the 40, where he is deflagged. RULING: Illegal. The pass did not cross the LoS, so this play does not involve a female. JHU Intramurals Flag Football Manual 27

Clarifications

Spots The ball is spotted where the flag was pulled. Extending the ball means nothing.

The Field Depending on the schedule, you may play games on the wide field, 40 yards wide, instead of the usual setup of two fields side-by-side. This will depend on the day s schedule. All games are still held on the same practice field the configuration just determines which lines are used as the sidelines.

G G 20 20 40 40 20 20 G G

Celebrations There was some confusion about the excessive celebration rule. To clarify: A celebration which is taunting or demeaning is a foul, full stop. Note: celebrating during the play could be considered taunting. If you scored a touchdown on the play, the touchdown would be taken away. A celebration which unduly delays the game is a foul. Beyond that, touchdown celebrations are OK. This includes going to the ground , choreographed celebrations, spiking the ball after a touchdown, using the ball as a prop , etc. Note: spiking the ball other than after a touchdown is a foul.

Flag positioning The flag belt must be over the shirt. Tuck your shirt in. The flag belt is positioned so that the flags are over the hips and the tailbone. If your flags are covered or out of position, the benefit of the doubt will go to the defender if he makes contact or accidentally holds you in trying to reach your illegally covered flags.

Kick out of bounds A punt can be kicked out of bounds. It s spotted where it crossed the sideline. A kickoff cannot be kicked out of bounds in flight. The opponent has the usual options to enforce the penalty. A kickoff that bounces in bounds and then goes OB is not a foul. It s spotted where it went out.

2017 Points of Emphasis

Proper Flag Positioning Remember that the flag belt must be over the shirt at the start of the down, and that the flags must be at the player s hips and tailbone. Officials will remind a player to fix his flags if they see it. Players are reminded that if a shirt ends up covering the flags through play, it is legal to grab the portion of the shirt which covers the flags, in a bona fide attempt to grab the flag. It is recommended that players wear shirts long enough to tuck into their pants, or I guess you could also wear cut-off shirts, if you like that. JHU Intramurals Flag Football Manual 36

Use of Hands / Contact Contact is allowed in blocking, but extending arms or elbows to impede or restrict an opponent is not. It is recommended that players block with their arms behind the back. If arms in front of the body are extended, it will be called a foul. (Some leeway is given to females blocking with arms in front of their body.) Illegal Contact is a PoE for lower-level games this year. In lower-level games, the contact no longer needs to be direct to be a foul. The onus is on the players to avoid contact. For A-level games, the rule is the same as it was last year. JHU Intramurals Flag Football Manual 37

Kick Plays Kicks will be more frequent this year. Kickoffs were added because they are widely seen as a lot of fun. However, because kickoffs involve two teams running towards each other, players are reminded that when blocking on kick returns that they must pay particular attention not to initiate positive contact with an opponent. This is a more pronounced safety issue on kickoffs, and the officials will be calling these plays more tightly with regard to contact. JHU Intramurals Flag Football Manual 38

Sideline Control Substitutes must be 2 yards off the field of play, so that they don t interfere with players or officials. Your players need that space to keep themselves safe, and our officials need that space on the sideline to be in position to make the calls. If a substitute is too close to the field, you get one warning, after which penalties will be assessed. If a substitute interferes with play or with an official, it is a foul for unsportsmanlike conduct and will be a 15 yard penalty without warning. Note that the sideline officials will be off the field, so you need to be behind them. JHU Intramurals Flag Football Manual 39

Have a great season!