re: SEC Statement re: AU/Arkansas

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This is 100% false. The whistle there killed the play. Any other action involving the football was null and void b/c the play was dead. It was for all intents & purposes an inadvertent whistle.

I know Arkansas fans aren't happy and understandably so, but the explanation makes sense.

And I am an official, and as an official, there is nothing worse than an inadvertent whistle. But its happened to all of us at one point.

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You are correct in high school football and lower division college football with no replay.

With replay, continuation is allowed. Rules are 100% different with games with replay.

Dead Ball and Loose Ball
ARTICLE 3. Reviewable plays involving potential dead balls and loose balls include:
a. Loose ball by a potential passer ruled a fumble.
b. Loose ball by a passer ruled incomplete forward pass when there is clear recovery in the immediate continuing action after the loose ball.
1. If the replay official does not have indisputable video evidence as to which team recovers, the ruling of incomplete pass stands.
2. If the replay official rules fumble, the ball belongs to the recovering team at the spot of the recovery and any advance is nullified.
c. Live ball not ruled dead in possession of a ball carrier.
d. Loose ball ruled dead (Rule 4-1-2-b-2), or live ball ruled dead in possession of a ball carrier, when the clear recovery of a loose ball occurs in the immediate continuing football action.
1. If the ball is ruled dead and the replay official does not have indisputable video evidence as to which team recovers, the dead-ball ruling stands.
2. If the replay official rules that the ball was not dead, it belongs to the recovering team at the spot of the recovery and any advance is nullified.

An official I know says the whistle was blown in anticipation of what was about to happen instead of what actually happened. This should NEVER be the case. My friend, whom I mentioned and quoted in another post said that emphasis NO. 1 in every seminar which referees are required to attend each Summer is to NEVER blow the whistle too soon. It's much easier and much more fair to not blow the whistle until the play is clearly over because the officials can always refer to replays and officials meetings on the field to accrue more information to come to a correct consensus. Just admit the official prematurely shot his load and AU should have lost the game and we'll trudge on. Thank God y'all have Morris and we don't.