One more question

[JustMy2Cents]

Thanks for the comments on my change of possession question.

One other occurence that recently happened:

1. K punts.
2. The ball is rolling down around the R 1.
3. K is clearly in the endzone, and while in the endzone, touches ball.
4. The ball never breaks plane of goalline.
5. K's teammate subsequently downs ball at R 1.

Explanation that we were given: even though K touched ball while he was in the endzone, since the ball never went into the endzone, ball is marked ready for play at the R 1.

Is this the correct ruling?

[AndrewMcCarthy]

Correct. The ball never entered the endzone.

[rdfox]

It is correct under Federation rules for high school games. It is the status of the ball vs. the goal line, not the player vs. the goal line.

College and pro are probably different.

[JustMy2Cents]

Ok, but would this be the case if against the sideline?

Example:
1. K punts.
2. K touches the ball while clearly outside field of play (the kid runs down on the punt, slides trying to stay in bounds, doesn't stay in bounds, touches a ball that is in bounds while being out of bounds)

The rules specifically say (4-2-3-1):
"...When the ball becomes dead in the field of play because of touching a person who is out of bounds, the out-of-bounds spot is fixed by the yard line through the foremost point of the ball."

While this may seem irrelavent to most, it seems like an inconsistency in the rules to me. The ball never goes out of bounds. It seems to me that the receiving team is not allowed the opportunity to play the advantage.

Example: R comes along and picks this ball up and runs it down the sideline for a touch.

Whereas, it seems like the kicking team in previous example is able to play an advantage, by being allowed to enter the endzone to keep the ball out of the endzone and have a teammate down the ball at the R 1.

[AlabamaBlue]

The endzone isn't OOB. That's the difference.