Actually his arm doesn't hit him until right at the GL.....and the defender's body really covers where the ball is at that instant. and no I'm not from Auburn.....but it doesn't appear that the defender got to the ball/ball carrrier until he BC reached the plane...
I'm not so sure. Here are some still shots from that video, the first one looks pretty clear that he wasn't across, and from the others you can see the ball down between his legs, and not accross.




By the way, I appreciate you folks letting me in here and discussing this. I hope you know I am not arguing, just trying to understand this myself and sharing all the information I can find on it.
I can certainly understand deferring to the H. He had a better look than the L. The H saw what he saw. It would be interesting to know if he saw the ball actually come loose or he just noticed it was loose. The L could not have seen ball break plane but did see ball loose (even if he did not see it come loose). I sure would not say anyone got "robbed" here. "Robbing" implies an intentional, deliberate act. I just see 2 (maybe 3?) guys trying to do their best to see what they can see and then rule on it.
Forgive me, I'm not an official and can't remember where the H and L line up, so I'm not sure which you are referring to.
If you are saying they should have deferred to the guy on the far side, that's what I don't understand. He didn't have a view of the fumble, the guy that did was closer and called it a fumble. I don't know why you would take the view of the guy that was farther away and his vision of the ball was blocked by the BC.