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Football Officiating => NCAA Discussion => Topic started by: TXMike on November 27, 2019, 09:26:52 AM
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Running play, Ball fumbled, a big pile of players forms on top of the ball. Digging official gets to the bottom of the pile and notices a teammate player is lying prone and the ball is underneath his stomach on the ground. He also notices Team B player is laying to the side but has reached one hand in such that it is between the stomach and the ball, on top of the ball. Who gets it?
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Based on 2-3-4-1a Player Possession, the ball would belong to Team B due to the definition stating "...a player has the ball firmly in his grasp by holding or controlling it while contacting the ground inbounds". Team B player has a hand on the ball, grasp, Team A is just laying on it. I have to say that my first thought was Team A possession. Review of Chapter 2 never hurts, now that season appears over for me, I have made myself an assignment, start with Chapter 2, then the rest of the book.
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I am giving it to A. Primarily because if B had control, it wouldn't be under an A player. Second, but just as important, a ball possessed by both teams goes to the team who last possessed it. These are assuming that all other possession criteria are met, such as it was not 4th down and they did not make the line to gain. Or it was 4th down and the runner fumbled it forward beyond the line to gain and it will be moved back to the spot of the fumble.
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Since IMHO based on the description neither team has clear possession and control and we have an obvious dead ball, I'm going with team A's ball.