What Is the Illegal Touching Rule In Football and How Does It Work?

In college football, illegal touching is a rules term that can refer to more than one scenario.

Broadly, the idea that ties these items together is that football rules clearly state who can legally touch the football. Here are the most common variants: 

Illegal Touching Rule Explanation for Wide Receivers

In NCAA football, it’s illegal for receivers to voluntarily run out of bounds, return inbounds, and then be the first person to touch the football. This is to prevent offensive players from getting around defensive players by avoiding them in the out-of-play area. 

If a player is forced out of bounds by a defensive player, he can remain a legal receiver by immediately returning in bounds and re-establishing that legal position on the field. Otherwise, he must let another player (from either team) touch the ball first. This could be a lateral from a teammate or an interception attempt from an opponent.

The penalty for illegal touching is a loss of downs. 

Illegal Touching Rule Explanation for Ineligible Players

Another scenario that occurs is that a legal pass is caught by an ineligible player. This would also constitute an illegal touching penalty that ends with a loss of downs.

The illegal player could be a wide receiver who was not legally lined up himself, or became ineligible due to the incorrect alignment of a teammate. 

Hypothetically, the pass could even be caught by a player who’s traditionally defined as an offensive lineman or tight end.

Illegal Touching vs. Illegal Passes

The NCAA rulebook makes clear that an illegal pass cannot result in an illegal touch. 

For something to be labeled as an illegal touch, the underlying pass must first be legal. If it is not, there is no opportunity for any kind of catch. 

Illegal Touching on Kick Returns

Technically speaking, the NCAA rule book refers to the regular practice of coverage players picking up their own team’s punts as illegal touching. 

This may be surprising, since this kind of special teams coverage is seen as normal business in the modern version of football. But in a technical sense, the rulebook labels it as yet another form of illegal touching, which results in the opposing team immediately being awarded the football at that specific field position.