Penalty (gridiron Football) - The Ten-second Runoff Rule

The Ten-second Runoff Rule

In the NFL and NCAA, a 10-second runoff is assessed if any of the following acts are committed by the offense in the last minute of either half:

1. A foul by either team that prevents the ball from being snapped
2. Intentional grounding
3. Illegal forward pass beyond the line of scrimmage
4. Throwing a backwards pass out of bounds
5. Spiking or throwing the ball away after a down (unless after a touchdown)
6. Any other intentional act that causes the clock to stop

The 10-second penalty does not apply if:

1. The clock is stopped when the ball is set for play and will not start until the ball is snapped.
2. If the team on offense has timeouts and elects to use one in lieu of the runoff.
3. If the defense declines the runoff (which prevents the offense from committing fouls to intentionally run out the clock). Note that the team on defense may elect to decline the runoff while accepting the yardage penalty, but may not do the reverse.

Moreover, the game clock will run once the ball is placed. If such a runoff occurs with 10 seconds or less remaining, the half automatically ends. Since the enforcement of the 10-second runoff, four NFL games ended automatically due to this rule (2005 Arizona-St. Louis, 2009 Cincinnati-Green Bay, 2011 Chicago-Oakland, and 2012 Washington-Philadelphia). A pre-season game in 2006 between Houston and Kansas City had the first half end automatically due to an intentional grounding foul with less than 10 seconds left, as did a 2012 regular season game between New England and Arizona (which cost New England the chance to attempt a field goal at the end of the half in a game they eventually lost by two points).

Starting in 2011, the NCAA adopted a similar 10-second penalty rule for college football. Like the NFL rule, it applies in the last minute of each half, but the NCAA rule differs in that it applies to fouls by either side that cause a clock stoppage. Like the NFL rule, the team that benefits from the penalty may elect to take both the yardage and the runoff, the yardage alone, or neither (but not the runoff in lieu of yards). The penalized team may elect to take a charged timeout in order to avoid the run-off.

The new NCAA rule was passed in response to the end of the 4th quarter in the 2010 Music City Bowl. In that game, the North Carolina Tar Heels were down 20-17 at the end of the 4th quarter and because they had no timeouts, they spiked the ball to stop the clock with 1 second left while too many men were on the field due to confusion about whether the field goal unit needed to come on the field. Because college football did not yet have the 10-second runoff, UNC was penalized 5 yards but was still able to kick the field goal to send the game to overtime, and would wind up beating Tennessee 30-27 in double overtime.