Mississippi HS Game Protest Upheld

[Rich]

Originally Posted by ajmc

This was a tough situation, but the current rule is direct, simple and clear; (NFHS: 1.1.11 "Protests of NFHS rules are not recognized". I realize it's not a rule being challenged here, but the misapplication of a rule. That situation is covered in current rule (NFHS: 3.5.11 - The process designed for a coach to question a rule application, during the contest.).

In this actual situation, the team had the opportunity to question the application of this rule, and doing so may have well caused the Referee to correct his error on the spot and prevent what happened.

This decision sets a dangerous prescedent that Mississippi will likely have to deal with again, some time in the future, where some other post game discovery generates a similar request to change events after the fact.

There is no question that the officials misapplied a rule and that mistake produced the opportunity for a score to be added after the game should have been completed. The coaching staff of the disadvantaged team had every right and every opportunity to have followed existing procedures
(3.5.11) to question the ruling and ask it to be reversed.

The official's mistake was, "readily correctable" and could have and should have been corrected before the untimed down was played. Correcting it after the fact creates a dangerous and unfortunate prescedent.

Regardless of how anyone feels about it, states are free to use or ignore NFHS rules whenever they wish. Or not even use them.

In this case, I think the state did the right thing. It was the last play of the game and the game had (should have) ended.

The officials here should be held accountable, not the coaches.