Well, obviously the biggest story of the day revolves around the BYU-Washington game. Let me recap just in case you live in England, or a cave, or wherever else you would have to live in order to have no access to Sportscenter, College Football Final, your local news, or any media that discussed sports for at least 30 seconds yesterday.
On third and goal from the 3 yard line, trailing 28-21, with 8 seconds and one timeout left, Washington ran a QB draw. Jake Locker made some good moves, broke a tackle, and stumbled into the end zone. He proceeded to toss the ball up into the air. The nearest official, after seeing the toss, immediately reached for his yellow flag, calling an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty, moving the game-tying extra point back 15 yards. BYU proceeded to block the extra point and won the game 28-27. Let the controversy begin.
For clarification sake, rule 9, section 2, article 1, part (c) gives one of the definitions of unsportsmanlike conduct as, after scoring a touchdown, "throwing the ball high into the air." Article 1, itself, states that after scoring a touchdown the ball must be either set on the ground, or handed to an official. The NCAA has informed all officials that these rules are to be strictly enforced this year. The Pac 10 officials issued a statement after the game saying that it was not a judgment call, the rule SPECIFICALLY mentions the tossing of the ball as a penalty. The only judgment is whether the ball went "high into the air." I saw so many replays of the toss on ESPN that I pulled out a stopwatch to time how long the ball was in the air: 2.5 seconds, you decide if the ball remaining in the air that long would qualify as one tossed high into the air (my guess is it went at least 15 feet up in the air). The rule does not have any exceptions. It doesn't excuse a young player, or a player who scored to tie an emotional game, or after a score made in the final 5 seconds, or after a sensational individual effort, or after a teammate was taken off the field in a stretcher, etc. The rule says if this happens it is a penalty.
Now there are so many angles to look at this from.
First, the Pac 10 has a problem with its officiating. Oklahoma fans can attest to that. In fact, I can't remember the last time I watched a Pac 10 team playing out of conference where the officials did not have some impact on the outcome of the game. Whether it is making calls at critical times, missing calls at critical times, or calling it inconsistently throughout the game, the refs are having more of a say in the final score than ANY OTHER CONFERENCE'S officials. The other problem with this is that the Pac 10 officiates ALL of its non conference games, either at home or on the road. That leads to the question: will this officiating "blunder" have some carryover into the BYU-UCLA game this weekend? Will payback be on the mind of the Pac 10 officials who ref that game? Also along this line-and I am not one to blame refs, it's a tough business-but they had several no-calls on Washington's final drive. On 2nd and 19, before completing a 20 yard pass, a BYU defensive lineman had a clear path to Jake Locker and was obviously held, after breaking free from the hold, he chased Locker until he was illegally chop-blocked and taken out of the play. Then came the 20-yard completion. A call on either of the illegal blocks, would have made that play void and set up a 2nd and 29 from the 49 with less than 30 seconds left. Several plays later on a fade route into the end zone, a BYU player illegal face-guarded and made contact with the receiver just prior to the ball's arrival. A penalty could have easily been called on that play. On Locker's touchdown run, a BYU linebacker (and leading returning tackler) was in position to make a tackle, or at least slow Locker up and allow time for teammates to make a tackle, before being shoved in the back, illegally, and knocked out of position, allowing Locker to get freely to the outside. A plethora of penalties, that were completely legitimate, would have altered the outcome of the game, or at least the play selection, and made the "controversial" penalty moot. A final thought, the Pac 10 officials made the call against their own team.
Second, the outcome of the game was not decided by the penalty. A 35-yard field goal from straight away is not much more than a chip shot. An hour after this game was over, Sam Swank of Wake Forest hit a 48-yard field goal from the right hash with 3 seconds left to win a game, so it can be done. Washington still had a chance to tie the game with a simple flick of the leg (oh, and some blocking up front wouldn't have hurt). It was not like the touchdown was revoked and they had to score it again.
Third, a block is a block is a block. Whether the snap came from the 3-yard line, the 18-yard line, the 30-yard line, or 3 yards deep in the end zone, that kick was blocked straight down into the ground. It landed 5 yards in front of the kicker. It had NO CHANCE of going in.
Fourth, if Washington had made the extra point, BYU still had a chance of winning the game in overtime. After all, in overtime anything can happen, especially with Washington's porous special teams blocking. It looked like 3 BYU players had a chance to block the kick.
Fifth, in Hollywood they say that any publicity is good publicity. Sportscenter spent over a minute on this game, showing highlights from the game, discussing the outcome, and pointing out that BYU won (though it should have gone to overtime). College Football Final spent over 5 minutes for their segment about the game. I couldn't flip to any sports channel throughout the evening without hearing some discussion about the outcome of this game. I saw the play, heard interviews with people in the NCAA officiating and rules office, interviews with Bronco Mendenhall, Ty Willingham, and Jake Locker, etc. I heard everyone's opinion about the legitimacy, timing, etc. of the call. The last time BYU had this much time on ESPN was when they had a game broadcast on it. BYU won, and every college football fan in America knows. I would argue that the aftermath proves this Hollywood adage: bad publicity hurt the Cougars. Despite winning on the road against a Pac 10 team, BYU dropped from 15 to 18 in the AP Poll (4 teams jumped them) and remained at 15 in the USA Today/Coaches' Poll, though they were leaped by number 16 Oregon (who beat Washington 44-10 last week).
Sixth, if BYU were just another team, say Colorado State for example, and won in the same fashion, would anyone have been talking about it? I'm guessing that no one would have cared because it wouldn't have involved the "most hated non-BCS team in America," according to ESPN.
Seventh, to regain any credibility they had, BYU must win big this weekend against UCLA. If they lose at home to the Bruins, I think people will feel even more strongly that Washington should have won the game. A loss this weekend will count for two losses in the eyes of the voters.
On a side note, and not that I think this fiasco has anything to do with it, but UCLA dropped from the polls, despite not losing. Only one team on the remainder of their schedule is currently ranked, and that game is the last week of the season, so who knows if they will get to play a ranked team this season.
BYU won the game! They out played Washington for the whole game and when it mattered the most (with 2 seconds left). What urks me is that all the national media are claiming that Washington got robbed? BYU would have won in OT anyways, so this way we didn't have to watch 30 more minutes with the same result. And the commentators/sportscasters, do you really think if you keep complaining that it will change the result? Let it go.
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