Kicking ball and switching balls

[Salem33]

Team A kicks off to team B. Team A recovers the ball. The officials don’t allow team A to bring in a different ball than the one that was kicked. The quarter runs out and they still don’t allow team A to switch balls. They say Team A has to take a timeout to switch balls. Is this correct? 

[Bobref]

11 minutes ago, Salem33 said:

Team A kicks off to team B. Team A recovers the ball. The officials don’t allow team A to bring in a different ball than the one that was kicked. The quarter runs out and they still don’t allow team A to switch balls. They say Team A has to take a timeout to switch balls. Is this correct? 

When to switch footballs is completely discretionary with the officials. However, when a new series of 4 downs starts, the offense should get a new ball if they want. There is no rule requiring a team to use a timeout to get a new ball in the game.

I suspect that what this is really about is the familiar “kicking ball” scenario. A team checks in several footballs before the game. One of them is the ball they want to kick. But they don’t want to play scrimmage downs with it. Sorry, there is no such thing as a “kicking ball” in high school. A team may be required to play with any one of their checked in footballs. They are all the same.

 

Edited September 4, 2021 by Bobref

[Goose Liver]

On 9/4/2021 at 9:46 AM, Bobref said:

When to switch footballs is completely discretionary with the officials. However, when a new series of 4 downs starts, the offense should get a new ball if they want. There is no rule requiring a team to use a timeout to get a new ball in the game.

I suspect that what this is really about is the familiar “kicking ball” scenario. A team checks in several footballs before the game. One of them is the ball they want to kick. But they don’t want to play scrimmage downs with it. Sorry, there is no such thing as a “kicking ball” in high school. A team may be required to play with any one of their checked in footballs. They are all the same.

 

I was told once at the MS level by a ref. "You have to kick the ball you scored with." 

[Bobref]

On 9/9/2021 at 8:02 AM, Goose Liver said:

I was told once at the MS level by a ref. "You have to kick the ball you scored with." 

Technically true. A team is entitled to a new ball at the start of any series. A try is not a new series, so there is no entitlement to a new ball for the try, unless the scoring team was not the team in possession at the start of the down. If you score with the other team’s ball, you can use your own for the try.

Edited September 11, 2021 by Bobref