College football is dealing with another last-second controversy.
No. 2 Notre Dame suffered its first loss of the season Saturday night, 28-24 to No. 8 BYU in Provo, but the Big 12 issued a statement Sunday morning acknowledging that one second should have been restored to the clock to give the Fighting Irish one final play to attempt to win the game.
“Following the Big 12’s review of the final play of Saturday’s Notre Dame-BYU game, it was determined that time remained on the clock when the ball hit the ground and the play was incorrectly cleared by the replay officiating crew,” the statement read. “The Conference will conduct a complete review of its end-of-game officiating process in advance of next week’s games.”
BYU also appeared to commit defensive pass interference on what turned out to be the final play of the game, but when the incomplete pass on first-and-goal from the 9-yard line by quarterback CJ Carr hit the turf in the end zone, there appeared to be one second remaining on the clock. The officials briefly huddled to discuss the play before signaling the game was over, and the BYU fans stormed the field at Lavell Edwards Stadium.
Either way, ESPN rules analyst Matt Austin believed DPI should have been called against BYU in the end zone, and Notre Dame should have been granted another offensive play for that reason.
“I think it warranted a flag,” Austin said on the broadcast. “That’s a lot of contact where you’re not playing the ball… I would’ve supported a DPI.”
In its season opener, Michigan was erroneously granted an additional second against Western Michigan before completing a Hail Mary pass to defeat Western Michigan.
Five of the top seven teams in the AP Top 25 poll lost Saturday, also including No.1 Georgia against Auburn, No. 5 Indiana against Ohio State, No. 6 Alabama against Tennessee and No. 7 Texas against Florida.
