A&M/Memphis finish

[Scrapper1]

Far be it from me to get in the middle of a good mud-flinging catfight, but just so I'm not misunderstanding the situation, let me just recap what I think you're saying:

The situation is that a live ball was inbounded and legally touched inbounds (the clock should have started), then an official blew the whistle before the ball touched out of bounds, and then the ball was caught by a fan out of bounds. All this happened without the clock ever starting.

I think Jurassic is saying that the correct amount of time to be taken off the clock is the amount of time that elapsed from the legal touching inbounds to the ball touching out of bounds, ignoring the official's inadvertent whistle.

And the other poster is saying that the correct amount of time to be taken off the clock is the amount of time that elapsed from the legal touching inbounds to the official's inadvertent whistle.

Originally Posted by Jurassic Referee

You really need to learn some basics, jk. See NFHS fundamental #16 on p74 of the FED rule book.

If I have the above situation correct, then I'm not sure how Fundamental #16 helps make your case, Jurassic. That just says that the whistle "seldom" causes the ball to become dead, because it's usually already dead by the time the whistle blows due to a foul or violation. But if the ball is not already dead, then 6-7-5 says that the ball becomes dead when an official's whistle sounds (unless a try is in flight, which isn't the case here). So Fundamental #16 seems irrelevant to me in this particular situation.

Again, the whistle is completely irrelevant on plays when the clock NEVER started and a timing adjustment needs to be made.

Maybe I'm missing something obvious, but I just don't see what makes you say that the whistle is completely irrelevant. Obviously, you think it has something to do with the fact that the clock didn't start, but I don't (yet) see how that makes a difference.

The officials need definite information as to how much time should be taken off, and when the whistle blew has got nothing to do with establishing that definite information.

If they can determine when the whistle blew (and maybe that's the thing that I'm missing), wouldn't that be the proper signal to stop the clock (whether it's the game clock, or the stopwatch that they're using with the monitor)?

The actual time that elapsed between a legal touch in-bounds until the ball touched OOB is definite information.

Wouldn't the actual time between the legal touch and the whistle also be definite information, if you could determine when the whistle sounded?

Maybe Jurassic is contending that there is no clear evidence in the replay of when the whistle blew, in which case the only other obvious and definitive place to kill the play is when it was touched out of bounds?

(I didn't mean for this post to be Nevada-esque, I was just trying to clarify it in my own mind.)