End of Wisconsin - Arizona State game
 

No video to post yet, but it should be the biggest story in college football from the weekend.

Someone explain to me how any official on that field ever gets work again.

Couple things at play. If you put the ball down, you are not down by rule.

Secondly, if the ball is downed, then you do not get to "clock" the ball with less then 3 seconds while the clock is running (New rule).

Either way, justice was done.

Full discloser, my mom went to Wisconsin and I am kind of a fan when they are not playing my first love (Michigan). The Wisconsin QB should be shot for stupidity.

Peace

So no answer then?



The play was over with 15 seconds left when it was blown dead. An Arizona State player laid on top of the ball with 12 seconds left for eight seconds followed by the official refusing to spot the ball.

Justify them ever working again.

http://twitpic.com/ddk0v6

His knee also does appear to be down, supported by the play being blown dead at that point by the officials.

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As to your question, why is this a fireable offense in your opinion? If the conference deems they didn't follow the proper mechanics, there are other methods of punishment rather than outright firing, for one play.

Other than the infamous Oklahoma-Oregon onside kick game, I think you'd be hard-pressed to find a more massive failure in game officiating.

They failed with an official standing on top of the ball to spot it in 14 seconds.

They failed to throw a delay of game flag when a defensive player laid on the ball for 8 seconds.

They just ran off the field as if nothing had happened.

They failed miserably in every aspect of their job. It's not like there was a split-second judgment involved. This involved failure on the entire crew's part.

There's nothing that can be said to defend any of it.



Obviously I'm not expecting them to actually be fired, but if ever an official was going to lose his/her job for on-field performance, this would be it.

The defender was on top of the ball for that period of time because he, among with the entire defense, and I'm betting the umpire thought the QB fumbled the ball. The resulting confusion as to what happened on the play meant the defense wasn't going to get a DOG penalty on that play.

The play was blown dead with 15 seconds left on the clock. 10 seconds later the defender was finally letting go of the ball. That's way too long to be accepted as mere "confusion."

The very least they should have done would have been to review the play and spot the ball properly with the correct amount of time on the clock.

Wisconsin being denied a game-winning field goal opportunity, whether it from the 15 or the 10 after a DOG penalty, is 100% on the officials, and there's nothing that can be said to change that.

http://www.sbnation.com/2013/9/15/47...te-officiating


Another good summary.

Going to reserve judgment until I see video, but if your argument hinges on summaries from fan sites and an inconclusive still picture, you're not going to convince anyone here.

My take on it
 

I went to bed confused, last night, as to why the QB would think that setting the ball on the ground constituted giving himself up. Not until I saw the rear angle of the play could I actually tell that he did, in fact, down the ball. Whether he did or not is really a moot point, because the ref blew the whistle. To me, the officiating crew seemed completely unaware of the time left, as there was no urgency to retrieve the ball and set it for play. Watch the umpire's actions and body language after the whistle. While casually asking for the ball, he stopped and chatted with another Arizona lineman. Then he raised his hand and made the offensive line wait. Is there any way that they could have stopped and conferred instead of dashing off the field, to make sure they got it right?

I'll be interested to see what you have to say after you see it, because I don't think there's much room for interpretation.

Here's the video:

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