Rules question (slightly OT)

[PSU2UNC]

I was watching the Purdue-Arizona game last night and saw a ruling I had never seen before.

The call involved a spot along the sideline on a 4th and 2 where it was pretty obvious that Purdue got the first down. You can see the video (and some discussion) here:

http://www.sportingnews.com/ncaa-fo...arms-bowl-ball-spot/1rl927s2xw3u1wnnllj9cw2gn

The ruling as it was explained by the "rules expert" on the telecast was that the ball was spotted where the ball initially went out of bounds (i.e. crossed the plane of the sideline), not where it was when the running back was down and therefore the spot was short of the line to gain.

I have been watching football for almost forty years and I have never heard that interpretation of the rules regarding a spot. Has anyone else ever heard of this? If this is the correct call, how would you apply it to a situation where a ball carrier has the ball in his sideline hand and the ball is being carried out of bounds as he runs along the sideline? (obviously, the ball wouldn't be spotted where it initially went out of bounds). If this ruling last night was correct (I don't think it was) that seems like there is a major contradiction in the rules.

Any former officials or rules experts want to clarify this one for me?

Thanks.

 

[UncleLar]

I was watching the Purdue-Arizona game last night and saw a ruling I had never seen before.

The call involved a spot along the sideline on a 4th and 2 where it was pretty obvious that Purdue got the first down. You can see the video (and some discussion) here:

http://www.sportingnews.com/ncaa-fo...arms-bowl-ball-spot/1rl927s2xw3u1wnnllj9cw2gn

The ruling as it was explained by the "rules expert" on the telecast was that the ball was spotted where the ball initially went out of bounds (i.e. crossed the plane of the sideline), not where it was when the running back was down and therefore the spot was short of the line to gain.

I have been watching football for almost forty years and I have never heard that interpretation of the rules regarding a spot. Has anyone else ever heard of this? If this is the correct call, how would you apply it to a situation where a ball carrier has the ball in his sideline hand and the ball is being carried out of bounds as he runs along the sideline? (obviously, the ball wouldn't be spotted where it initially went out of bounds). If this ruling last night was correct (I don't think it was) that seems like there is a major contradiction in the rules.

Any former officials or rules experts want to clarify this one for me?

Thanks.

The ball was spotted correctly.

The ball is spotted at the point of forward progress. In your imaginary scenario, every step a runner makes while advancing down the sideline advances the point of forward progress regardless of whether the ball is inside or outside the boundary line (if a runner advances into the endzone, it's a TD regardless of whether the ball actually passes inside or outside of the pylon).

For the actual instance in this game, just imagine that there was an imaginary pylon where the first down marker was. The ball must pass over or inside this imaginary pylon in order for it to be a first down, just like the ball must pass over or inside the real pylon when a runner stretches the ball out trying to score a touchdown. If it passes outside the "imaginary" pylon (as it did in this game), then it is placed where it went over the sideline, just as a ball would be if it went over the sidelines out of bounds as a runner stretched for a touchdown.

From the rule book examples:

A.R. 11.2 Second-and-10 on B18. Runner A1 takes handoff and runs down the sideline toward the goal line with the ball in his outside arm. He crosses the goal line plane standing with the ball to the outside of the pylon. Ruling: Touchdown. Part of the ball crossing over or inside the pylon only applies to an airborne runner who lands out of bounds.

 

[PSU73]

I'm going to attempt to paraphrase Uncle Lar: if you go out-of-bounds, it matters where the ball is at. If you don't step/cross OOB, then it doesn't matter where the ball is at.
In the case last night, the ball was in the hand which was OOB and he never crossed the plane of the first down in bounds with the ball or his body prior to being OOB.