Ball Squishing (compressing) on Line
 

Hi all,

Wonder if anyone can come up with a rule reference for allowing the ball to squish/compress down to contact the line...thereby ruling the ball in-bounds, based on the squish/compression caused by the impact of the ball.

In my mind (and I believe backed by the rule book - in all VB rule sets), the instant that the ball contacts the floor, the play is dead. So, the first instant that the center of the ball contacts the floor, if it's not touching a line and outside the boundary, it is "out."

Strangely, in a major VB match recently, the R2 (utilizing the challenge review system) overturned two out of bounds calls late in the match that appeared to be correctly made by the line judge. It seems obvious that this R2 was counting the compression of the ball a micro-second after the play was over. :confused:

Any thoughts? Rule references to justify including the compression of the ball after the play is over?

- Tim

I think if we are getting into the microsecond of the ball hitting the line vs compressing into the line we are overthinking this a little bit too much. This is one of the concerns I have with the use of video replay in sports. We are taking a live action shot and slowing it down to the point we have a 100fps stop rate to review a call for a fraction of an inch determination, something the human eye can't see. I think reviews should be limited to full speed reviews of a play for that reason. Replay should be able to overturn what is an obvious missed call by the official.