Be the Referee: Fumble Out of Bounds
By
Paige Winne
MHSAA Director of Brand Management
August 25, 2026
Be The Referee is a series of short messages designed to help educate people on the rules of different sports, to help them better understand the art of officiating, and to recruit officials.
Below is this week's segment – Fumble Out of Bounds - Listen
We are on the football field today, where the offense has the ball on their own 20-yard line. It’s 3rd-and 10. They run a draw play, with the running back gaining nine yards before fumbling at the 29 yard-line.
The fumbled ball goes forward to the 35-yard line before another offensive player recovers. Where should the ball be marked?
Because the ball was recovered in-bounds, it’s first down for the offense at the point of recovery, the 35-yard line.
If the ball had rolled out of bounds at the 35-yard line, before anyone could recover it, it would have been brought back to the spot of the fumble – the 29-yard line – making it 4th-and-1 for the offense.
(Photo by Larry Arreguin/Team Arreguin Photos.)
Week 6 Football Playoff Listing
September 26, 2012
Here is a list of Michigan High School Athletic Association football playing schools, displaying their win-loss records and playoff averages through the fifth week of the season. Schools on this list are in enrollment order. An asterisk (*) beside a record indicates that a team has eight or fewer games scheduled. A carrot (^) beside a school’s name indicates that a team is one win away from playoff qualification.
Those schools with 11-player teams with six or more wins playing nine-game schedules, or five or more wins playing eight games or fewer, will qualify for the MHSAA Football Playoffs beginning Oct. 26-27. Schools with 5-4, 4-3 or 4-4 records may qualify if the number of potential qualifiers by win total does not reach the 256 mark. Schools with six or more wins playing nine-game schedules or five or more wins playing eight games or fewer may be subtracted from the field based on playoff average if the number of potential qualifiers exceeds the 256 mark.
Once the 256 qualifying schools are determined, they will be divided by enrollment groups into eight equal divisions of 32 schools, and then drawn into regions of eight teams each and districts of four teams each.
Those schools with 8-player teams will be ranked by playoff average at season’s end, and the top 16 programs will be drawn into regions of eight teams each for the playoff in that division, which also begins Oct. 26-27.
To review a list of all football playoff schools, individual school playoff point details and to report errors, visit the Football page of the MHSAA Website.
The announcement of the qualifiers and first-round pairings for both the 11 and 8-player playoffs will take place at 7 p.m. on Oct. 21 on the Selection Sunday Show on FOX Sports Detroit. The playoff qualifiers and pairings will be posted to the MHSAA Website following the Selection Sunday Show.
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11-Player Playoff Listing
|
1. |
Utica Eisenhower |
2772 |
3-2 |
62.000 |
|
|
2. |
Sterling Heights Stevenson |
2766 |
4-1 |
75.800 |
|
|
3. |
Clarkston ^ |
2721 |
5-0 |
94.400 |
|
|
4. |
Grand Blanc |
2644 |
3-2 |
57.600 |
|
|
5. |
Macomb Dakota |
2608 |
4-1 |
80.600 |
|
|
6. |
Lake Orion ^ |
2565 |
5-0 |
96.000 |
|
|
7. |
Rockford |
2526 |
3-2 |
57.400 |
|
|
8. |
Troy |
2502 |
3-2 |
57.400 |
|
|
9. |
Clinton Township Chippewa Valley |
2462 |
4-1 |
77.000 |
|
|
10. |
Dearborn Fordson |
2442 |
4-1 |
83.400 |
|
|
11. |
Holland West Ottawa |
2262 |
4-1 |
71.000 |
|
|
12. |
Northville |
2220 |
3-2 |
60.400 |
|
|
13. |
Detroit Cass Tech |
2200 |
4-1 |
77.400 |
|
|
14. |
Canton |
2166 |
3-2 |
51.200 |
|
|
15. |
Monroe ^ |
2154 |
5-0 |
83.200 |
|
|
16. |
Detroit Catholic Central |
2060 |
3-2 |
47.800 |
|
|
17. |
Plymouth |
2050 |
4-1 |
71.200 |
|
|
18. |
Salem |
2039 |
4-1 |
75.600 |
|
|
19. |
Livonia Stevenson |
2005 |
4-1 |
77.200 |
|
|
20. |
Holt |
1992 |
3-2 |
57.200 |
|
|
21. |
Hartland ^ |
1932 |
5-0 |
91.200 |
|
|
22. |
Warren Mott ^ |
1879 |
5-0 |
86.400 |
|
|
23. |
Livonia Churchill ^ |
1877 |
5-0 |
100.800 |
|
|
24. |
Walled Lake Central |
1857 |
3-2 |
52.200 |
|
|
25. |
Macomb L'Anse Creuse North |
1853 |
3-2 |
58.400 |
|
|
26. |
Saline |
1849 |
4-1 |
72.400 |
|
|
27. |
Grandville |
1846 |
3-2 |
53.600 |
|
|
28. |
Flint Carman-Ainsworth ^ |
1772 |
5-0 |
88.000 |
|
|
29. |
Grand Ledge |
1743 |
4-1 |
70.600 |
|
|
30. |
Rochester |
1725 |
4-1 |
72.800 |
|
|
31. |
Traverse City West |
1720 |
4-1 |
72.200 |
|
|
32. |
White Lake Lakeland |
1700 |
4-1 |
72.400 |
|
|
33. |
Harrison Township L'Anse Creuse |
1680 |
3-2 |
||