wisconsin vs penn state - USC?

[blevak]

The point of my question was whether a USC should have been called. That's one of the reasons the USC rule is there - to care for situations that have not been explicitly cared for in the rules and to negate any unfair advantage a team may gain by "pushing the limits" of the rule.
There is the "letter of the law" and the "spirit of the law". If all we were to go by, as officials, was the letter of the law, then by all means, don't flag Wisconsin. But if the spirit of the law was to speed up the game AND we also read the USC rule, then doesn't it seem that Wisconsin should have been flagged for USC?
Football is not life and death as someone once said, it's more important than that, but it still is just a game. Rules are there to make it a fairer game between two teams, or have I missed something?

[MD Longhorn]

Calling USC does nothing to alleviate this situation. Walk off 15 instead of 5, so what - Wisconsin doesn't care.

The only legitimate recourse available to the officials was to use the Unfair Acts clause and put time back on the clock. Can you imagine the firestorm that this would have generated? The ONLY people on the planet who would have considered that a good solution are those of us on this board (and JoePa, I suppose). They would have been crucified. We all see that unfamiliar rule in the books, and because we live here on this board, we've discussed it ad infinitum in many different contexts.

But truthfully - who here has actually USED the rule that lets us make seemingly (to the unknowing fan/coach) unilateral decisions regarding fairness to override an existing rule (the existing rules that are in print and known by the general public)? Other than "Where's the tee" type plays, which most of us read about but have never SEEN, when does this rule crop up? Never.

How can we fault the officials for not invoking an EXTREMELY rarely used rule to instill fairness into this situation? How can we fault a coach who was seemingly creative with a new rule, and worked completely within that rule (I say again --- nothing prevented PennState from declining the penalty and taking the ball!) in an attempt to win. How is that worse than any other trick play that is currently legal?

How can we NOT fault the NCAA for allowing this loophole (one obvious to any official who has been on any of these boards in this past year) to continue until it was abused? Place the blame where it is deserved, guys.

[blevak]

I do fault the NCAA for not foreseeing this.

From one of my law professors, I remember that, "Ignorance is no excuse in the law." And because it can not be used as an excuse, I also fault the coaches. They are the mentors and leaders the players look to for guidance, character and leadership.

[TXMike]

I don't blame the NCAA for not catching it but I do blame them for a process which makes it all too easy for changes to be made without being vetted through some active officisals or supervisors. The way the process is now, we have to rely on coaches and administrators to understand the rules well enough to know the true potential impact of changes. Who hear wants to say any of them really understand the rules? And then the changes go to the PROP which I believe has NO football related people at all on it. Only one person, John Adams, has any officiating background and, sad to say, he may be past his prime.