Question of the moment

[ElvisLives]

On a beautiful, clear, crisp fall day somewhere in upper-mid Texas, Apes vs Bears, both in district 10X:
2/8, B-28, 0:03 (4), A=14, B=24.

A12’s legal forward pass is caught by end A88 at the B-20, and A88 jukes and jives and reverses and stiff arms defenders and, with every ounce of effort remaining in his body and soul, advances to the B-1 where B99 cuts A88’s feet from underneath him, and, as time in the period expires, A88 falls with the ball squarely on the goal line before any of his body parts touch the ground (of which several do touch the ground instantly thereafter). With the Back Judge majestically signaling “touchdown,” A88 rises from the ground, hands the ball to the Back Judge and says “Thank you for being here, today, and for all you do to serve this sport, sir.” He then looks into the grandstands to acknowledge the dozens of adoring and screaming fans. A88 waves and blows kisses to the crowd as he moves toward his bench area. Momentarily afterward, both teams begin to send in their special teams units for the try.

Ruling:

[dammitbobby]

My favorite answer as a consultant: it depends.

If the district uses positive points, then the try should be allowed to be run.  This should be communicated by coaches to the officials prior to the start of the game (assuming the officials don't know prior.) Last week I asked a coach and he didn't know(!) so we operated under the assumption that positive points was in play for this district.

It's implied that if we are not using positive points, then the try should not be allowed to be attempted. I'm not a fan of that; I'd rather see a UIL exception that requires all tries to be run, so that there is no confusion - and no opportunity for a mistake by officials to have playoff implications.

[ElvisLives]

Yeah, verify with the teams before the game that they are playing positive points. If so, run the try. If not, game over.