Tough situation my partner put us in

[M&M Guy]

Originally Posted by Camron Rust

What about this....

With no player near, the ball is sailing OOB towards the wall but has yet to hit the wall. How many of you have ever blown the whistle or have seen a partner blow the whistle before the ball actually makes contact with the wall, even if only just a fraction of a second? OK, now that just about every one has realized they have seen this happen, how many of you have given the ball to or have gone to that partner and informed them that they had to give the ball to the team that threw the ball? Given the argument of 4-36, you should! Now will you in the future? Didn't think so.

That's not an inadvertant/accidental whistle, but simply an early whistle.

The NCAA actually has a definition of an inadvertant whistle - when the official blows the whistle when there is no call to make. Fed. doesn't have that specific definition, but I don't think there would be many who would argue that would apply here. In your OOB example, there is a call to make - it was just made early. However, if you see the players stop playing when there was a chance of someone saving the ball, then, yes, it would be an accidental whistle and the ball would go back to the team last in control.