Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(US) a mess, a confusion.

1896		Pittsburgh Press (PA) 15 Nov. 11/5: The following words made up the list [i.e. of college slang] [...] Ball-up, bone, cinch, co-ed, cram, crib, fiend, flunk, fresh, fruit [etc].
1900		DN II 17: Nouns derived from verbs and modifying adverbs, as ball-up.
1927		(con. 1917) J. Stevens Mattock 92: There was a ball-up as a lot of us started forward with the first squad, instead of going squads right.
1952		R.C. Ruark 6 Oct. [synd. col.] The ball-up abroad has been supervised by Harry [Truman’s] advisers [W&F].