Hypothetical NCAA OT penalty situation

[bearclause]

Originally Posted by TXMike

Did you see the ending to the Alamo Bowl last year? What do you think about that?

Might have seen highlights, but I read about it. Sounded like the officials considered it a no harm, no foul situation and let the Nebraska players wandering onto the field slide. Frankly for the 1982 Stanford at Cal game (everyone has heard of that right?) there were also sideline players from both teams wandering onto the field thinking it was over but not otherwise interfering with the play. Now the Stanford Band was apparently a big nightmare for the officials - not the least of which was they couldn't see what was going on with the actual players.

As far as we can tell, the NCAA OT rules are designed to ensure that a series won't continue past the current play once there's a turnover. It almost sounds as if there's free rein to commit a penalty (other than dead ball types or illegal interference) by Team A if there's a turnover. I could see a desperate attempt to trip an intercepting player. Even for the illegal interference you stated that you'd be hesistant to do something creative (i.e. give a recovering team one down) once the ball has already been turned over in that play.