Onside Kick Question

[jets]

Meant to ask this question sometime ago...but what does the rule read presently on onside kicks in regards to kicking formation?? Specifically, the number of players that must be on one side of the kicker vs the other?? Is it 5 and 5 ?? 6 and 4?? 

And with that in mind, how in the world is the "bunch behind the kicker" surprise onside a legal thing?? Wouldn't/shouldn't that be considered an illegal formation?? 

Thanks

[Bobref]

10 minutes ago, jets said:

Meant to ask this question sometime ago...but what does the rule read presently on onside kicks in regards to kicking formation?? Specifically, the number of players that must be on one side of the kicker vs the other?? Is it 5 and 5 ?? 6 and 4?? 

And with that in mind, how in the world is the "bunch behind the kicker" surprise onside a legal thing?? Wouldn't/shouldn't that be considered an illegal formation?? 

Thanks

The rule is pretty simple: After the ready for play signal, and until the ball is kicked, K must have least 4 players on each side of the kicker. The “bunch” players are no exception. 4 must be on each side of the kicker.

[JustRules]

Bob is correct in that you can still have a bunch kick as long as 4 players are on either side of the kicker. I believe the rules committed has considered and states are experimenting with a rule change to require a 2-yard spread between all players on the kicking team as well. That seems pretty hard to enforce other than "are the players generally spread out?"