A1 and B1 are battling for a loose ball, they both get a hand on it, then both hands. I am about to call a held ball when I see that A1 has one foot out-of-bounds. I call a violation on A1, and award the ball out-of-bounds to B. Correct call?

Correct, unless the held ball occured before he stepped out of bounds.

Good call. A1's location is out of bounds, so as soon as A1 touches the ball, he/she has caused it to be out of bounds.

Z

Sounds like a good call to me. The only exception in my mind would be if both players were moving in an effort to gain control. In that case, if I thought he may have just stepped OOB, I may go ahead with the held ball under the premise that my slow whistle is the reason he violated (not likely but a possibility).

Your Choice!
 

Sounds like a good call to me. Hope you sold it.

Several years ago the held ball rule changed and removed any reference to amount of time the ball needed to be held. This got rid of the players violently struggling to free up the ball before the allotted time elapsed and a jump ball was called. Now the rule says "A held ball occurs when opponents have their hands so firmly on the ball that control cannot be obtained without undue roughness."

Girls games seem to be a little quicker on the inflationary end so I call a held ball sooner. Boys I tend to let tug just a little bit - their games are more physical and yet more controlled. I tend to let them show me that they really do have an advantage before I go to the arrow (or call a foul on a reaching player).

In either case, I expect all tugging to immediately stop once a whistle is blown.

Re: Your Choice!
 

I don't remember any specific time ever being alloted in either the old Fed or NCAA rulesets.Could you elaborate on exactly what time interval was specified for held balls in the rules back then?