NCAA reportedly considering rule correction after Oregon, Ohio State football game

Posted by Admin October 15, 2024 Football

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Oregon’s late illegal substitution penalty on Ohio State’s final drive Saturday night could result in a rare in-season rule correction, according to Yahoo Sports.

After speaking with NCAA secretary rules editor Steve Shaw on Tuesday, Yahoo Sports reported that the NCAA Football Playing Rules Committee is actively “engaged” in examining the play.

“We’ve had good dialogue on this play,” Shaw told Yahoo Sports. “We’ve recognized the way it played out.”

The penalty played an important role in the Ducks’ 32-31 win against the Buckeyes.

With 10 seconds left and Ohio State at the Oregon 43-yard-line, Buckeyes‘ quarterback Will Howard threw a pass that was broken up by cornerback Jabbar Muhammad with six seconds to play.

Oregon, however, had a late substitute on defense prior to the play when cornerback Dontae Manning entered the game to give the Ducks 12 players on the field.

Video: Oregon’s Dan Lanning talks 12-men penalty against Ohio State

Oregon Ducks head coach Dan Lanning addresses the Ducks’ 12-men penalty following the top-3 matchup against Ohio State at Autzen Stadium.

The five-yard penalty moved the ball to the Oregon 38 − still out of field-goal range for Ohio State − but didn’t add time back on the clock. On the final play, Howard was forced to scramble and unable to slide and stop the clock before the final six seconds ran out to end the game.

When asked on Monday if Oregon intentionally caused the penalty to run time off the clock, coach Dan Lanning was coy with his answer.

“We spend an inordinate amount of time on situations,” Lanning said. “There’s some situations that don’t show up very often in college football, but this is one that obviously was something that we worked on, so you can see the result.”

In college, unlike the NFL, the game clock doesn’t reset on an illegal substitution penalty by the defense.

Shaw told Yahoo Sports that the Big Ten officials handled the play correctly but the rules committee is discussing a way to address the play.

One possible solution, Yahoo suggested, is to issue an interpretation bulletin, which is often considered to be a directive for officials in future games.