Putting time back on the clock

[JugglingReferee]

Originally Posted by drs

Long time reader of this forum, first time post.

This year has been the year of clock issues for my crew. Here is one specific example that I want to get opinions on.

End of first half, home team A legally spikes the ball in an attempt to get one more play. As soon as the spike occurs and as the clock is being killed, the LJ immediately looks at the clock and sees 0.8 seconds left. Incidentally, A's head coach also notices time left on the clock. However, the clock operator does not stop the clock in time and the clock runs to zero.

Do you put the 0.8 back on the clock?
If not, what is your threshold by which you would put time back on the clock (1 second, 2 seconds, ...)?

We have had all kinds of discussions on this. On one side is the "if you put time back here, then why not every time you notice an extra second run off". The other is "A is spiking the ball legally to get one extra play and therefore you should not take that away from them just because the clock operator failed". There have been others as well.

Thanks.

I have a background in Federation basketball. Fed basketball specifically addresses human reaction time when it comes to timing errors/non-errors.

Does the Fed football rulebook deal with human reaction time? If so, then you have to go with that. If not, then I think that A is permitted one more play.

In the middle of the game, that second that ticks off is not important. If these middle-of-game seconds were that important, then yes our practice would be to add them to the clock. We don't though, do we? A legally ended a play before time ran out. They are afforded the timing rule as written in the book.

Unless there's a case book play or an AR, then they get one more play.