Oregon coaches exploited a loophole in the rulebook and it could result in in-season action from the NCAA.
With 10 seconds left in the Ducks’ win over Ohio State on Saturday, the Buckeyes were driving to get into range for what would have been a game-winning field goal when Oregon called a timeout. After the stoppage, the Ducks sent 12 defenders onto the field for a third-down play that resulted in an incomplete pass and left Ohio State with just six seconds on the clock.
Flagged for illegal participation, Oregon essentially traded having an extra defensive back on an obvious passing down for a five-yard penalty that burned four seconds off the clock — a savvy move that is now garnering scrutiny.
Steve Shaw, the NCAA secretary rules editor, told Yahoo Sports on Tuesday that the NCAA Football Playing Rules Committee is actively “engaged” in examining the play for possible action. The Big Ten officiating crew handled the play appropriately, Shaw said, but the rules committee is discussing a way to address the play.
In the past, the rules committee has responded to such “fair play” incidents with interpretation bulletins released during a season. The bulletins are often meant to be a directive for officials in games in the future.
“We’ve had good dialogue on this play,” Shaw told Yahoo Sports. “We’ve recognized the way it played out.”
Mid-season rules interpretations are not common but they have happened in the past for similar plays that violate a rules committee component — that a penalty should not benefit the team penalized. The goal of any interpretation is to discourage coaches from further exploiting the rules, which can only be changed during a longer off-season process.
To discourage the action in the Oregon-Ohio State game, any interpretation would likely direct officials to return the game clock to its original time. Shaw declined to comment on any specifics.
In an interview on Monday, a grinning Oregon coach Dan Lanning seemed to acknowledge that coaches intentionally inserted a 12th player — a defensive back — to assist in an obvious passing down.
“We spend an inordinate amount of time on situations, and there are some situations that don’t show up very often in college football,” he said, “but this is one that obviously we have worked on. So you can see the result.”
