On November 23, 1876, representatives from Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Columbia met in the Massasoit Residence resort in Springfield, Massachusetts to standardize a whole new code of regulations based on the rugby game initial introduced to Harvard by McGill University in 1874. The rules had been primarily based largely around the Rugby Football Union's code from England, although a single crucial big difference was the substitute of a kicked objective having a touchdown as the main indicates of site web scoring (a change that would afterwards manifest in rugby alone, favoring the test as the principle scoring function).

The referee positions themselves on the passing arm side on the quarterback. For most video games, the referee is chargeable for spotting the football ahead of a Perform from scrimmage.