NCAA closes loophole on Ducks’ 12-man penalty

The NCAA is closing the loophole used by Oregon to shave time off the game clock at the end of Saturday’s win over Ohio State.

In a release Wednesday, the NCAA issued a new rules interpretation on how to handle a penalty for 12 players on the field in the final two minutes of either half. If the defense has 12 players actively participate in the down, the offense can choose, along with the 5-yard penalty, to have the game clock reset to the time that had been displayed at the snap.

No time change would be made if there were 12 players but one of them was attempting to leave the field and did not affect the play.

Oregon coach Dan Lanning said Monday that the No. 2 Ducks had intentionally used 12 men on defense against the Buckeyes to help run time off the clock as they closed out the final seconds of their 32-31 win.

“We spend an inordinate amount of time on situations and some situations don’t come up very often in college football, but this was obviously something we had worked on,” Lanning said. “You can see the result.”

Just before the ball was snapped, Oregon defensive back Dontae Manning walked onto the field, giving the Ducks an extra defender. Ohio State failed to complete a pass against Oregon’s 12-man defense, and the Ducks were flagged for an illegal substitution penalty, surrendering 5 yards but also taking four seconds off the clock. A scramble by Ohio State quarterback Will Howard on the next play ended the game.

Such a ploy will no longer work going forward, as NCAA football secretary-rules editor Steve Shaw said in a statement that they were looking to “take away any gain for the defense” from committing an intentional penalty.

“Football is a very dynamic game,” Shaw said. “Occasionally there are specific situations where committing a penalty can give a team an advantage. A guiding principle of the NCAA Football Rules Committee is that there should be no benefit when a team commits a penalty.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.