Recent content by IndyBison

It's also to hep the officials believe it or not. When trying to track players during a play having similar colored jerseys makes that very difficult. I've had to work middle school all-star games where one team has navy blue jerseys and the other has black jerseys. Since we have look very...

There are balls from both teams on both sidelines. In most games the home team provides the ball boys for both sides, but some schools do have their own personnel handle their footballs on both sides. I'm guessing that's what they are doing here. Coaches are paranoid having someone else handling...

You are correct. If the runner's knee is down at the point of the graphic and he hasn't touched the pylon or anywhere else in the end zone, he doesn't get the goal line extended. The ball would be spotted at the foremost point of the ball when it crossed the sideline plane. Since the ball is...

The runner only gets the goal line extended if he gets something in the end zone. That includes the pylon. The announcer as usual was completely wrong in explaining the rule. Replay must have had a good view the ball was still short of the goal line when he touched the pylon. If he hadn't...

That is definitely when it can happen. It's not common but it does happen. As for the first part of your post above, a runner is down when he's in possession of the ball and anything other than his hand or feet touches the ground. The wrist is considered part of the hand. And the top of the...

It was close for sure. It's a judgment call if the brief moment the ball touched the ground helped him complete the catch then it would be incomplete. But replay felt it was a catch so I'm going with that. The grader and supervisor may think differently but things are that tight they generally...

He was going to the ground as part of completing the catch so he's not a runner yet. The fact he has control at that point is not relevant yet. If he was already considered a runner than the ball would be dead at the point of this photo.

Post season uses mixed crews so the referee doesn't work with their regular crew members. Some conferences give their #1 rated official at each position the conference championship game and some give them their top bowl game. Some mix it up and some do both. In general though the conference...

No such rule as "the ground can't cause a fumble". That's more announcer-speak. There is a basis of truth in the statement though. It assumes the runner already has possession of the ball. If anything on the runner other than hands or feet touch the ground the ball is dead. If that happens and...

Sending them for a specific number of plays (other than 1) would be difficult? Who would keep track of it? Does it extend over a period change or change of possession? What if a player plays both ways? Or if they also play special teams? I would expect the best solution would be for the...

I believe I've seen fans here talk about players faking injures (especially defensive players). It was a hot topic at the rules committee meeting this year per this article. I can only remember 1 obvious injury fake and a handful of suspicious injuries, but I'm sure there were more. No new rules...

I would add for the top 20 or 30 teams it's become more about money and entertainment. For the other 640 D1, D2, and D3 schools (730 if you count NAIA) teams it's still mostly about the student-athlete. Most still use football programs as a primary fundraiser for the athletic department and...

Trust me you don't always see or hear the first act. There are 22 players (more if the players go into the bench area) and 7 or 8 officials. You aren't going to see everything no matter how hard you try. I gave the example of a pile of players. No official has x-ray vision to see through bodies...

I don't know that we need any more officials at this point. 8 already has the game boxed in really well. The speed issue is more of quickness meaning things happen really fast. Did he grab the face mask or just touch the helmet but caused it to turn? When the runner was tripped did his knee...

The grading comment was about taking more than 2 minutes for a replay review, not the new timing rule if the clock should have stopped and would start on the RFP. As far as the other rule, if you want replay to be used to make things black and white when possible you have to take the good with...