NCAA review question
 

Saw something rather odd in the Arizona-BYU Las Vegas Bowl this weekend.

It is 3rd and goal from the 4 or something along those lines. BYU runs a play, and Arizona has 12 men on the field. BYU is stopped short. They are lining up to try again, Arizona still has 12 men on the field.

Someone actually counts, and a flag is thrown prior to the snap, presumably for dead ball illegal substitution, half the distance.

The referee goes to the replay, sees that there were 12 men on the previous play, and decides the flag is for THAT penalty, and calls illegal substitution on the play that is already over - and of course, that means that they are going to replay 3rd down, rather than 4th.

Didn't matter in the long run, but I was very surprised that he did that - or that he could do that. Is that actually a proper use of replay, under the college rules?

Unfortunately, NCAA IR rules do permit this. One of the "reviewable plays" listed in the rules is "the number of players participating by either team during a live ball." Since they had not yet snapped for 4th down, they coould go back and look at what happened on 3d.

The slope keeps getting slippier and steeper.

In the NFL, number of players on the field is also reviewable. The Patriots successfully challenged this in Super Bowl XLII.

Thanks, I appreciate the explanation.

As usual, when I wonder how in the world something can happen like that, it turns out that I am the one who lacks knowledge. Specifically in this case about rule 12.3.f.