Team Conferences

[bisonlj]

Saw something new in our game Friday night.

Team A commits a live ball foul. They know the foul is against them and notify the wing official on their sideline that they want a timeout. While the officials are conferring on the foul and notifying Team B captains of their options, the coach for Team A calls his team over to the sideline (knowing the time out is not granted until completion of penalty enforcement). The coach for Team B sees this and argues Team A is getting extra time for their time out. The wing official on the B sideline explains it is legal for all players to go to the sideline between downs as long as they stay on the field. Team A did this twice during the first half.

How would you handle this situation? Would you handle it any differently if the Team A conference only took place during penalty enforcement and not planning to take a time out? I'll share how we handled it after hearing from some of you.