NCAA closes loophole that allowed Oregon to purposely induce late penalty in win

The NCAA football rules committee issued guidance Wednesday to close a loophole that allowed second-ranked Oregon to exploit an illegal substitution penalty late in its victory over Ohio State to take time off the clock.

With Ohio State driving on its final possession of the game and just seconds left on the clock, Oregon was flagged for having too many defenders on the field, drawing a 5-yard penalty. While the Buckeyes gained 5 yards, the move took four seconds off the clock. The Ducks went on to win 32-31.

“After the Two-Minute Timeout in either half, if the defense commits a substitution foul and 12 or more players are on the field and participate in a down, officials will penalize the defense for the foul and at the option of the offended team, reset the game clock back to the time displayed at the snap,” the guidance said.

“The game clock will then restart on the next snap,” it continued. “If the 12th defender was attempting to exit but was still on the field at the snap and had no influence on the play, then the normal substitution penalty would be enforced with no clock adjustment.”

Steve Shaw, NCAA coordinator of football officials, said in a statement that a “guiding principle of the NCAA Football Rules Committee is that there should be no benefit when a team commits a penalty.”

“The goal of this in-season interpretation is to eliminate a potential clock advantage for committing a substitution foul and take away any gain for the defense if they violate the substitution rule,” he said.

Ohio State coach Ryan Day has not commented on the play. Ohio State was hampered on the final drive by an offensive pass interference call that pushed the Buckeyes back.

Oregon coach Dan Lanning seemed to indicate that the Ducks took advantage of the loophole during his Monday news conference ahead.

“We spend an inordinate amount of time on situations and some situations don’t come up very often in college football, but this was obviously something we had worked on,” Lanning said. “You can see the result.”

Oregon took the lead with 1:47 left on Atticus Sappington’s 19-yard field goal in Saturday night’s game, giving the Buckeyes time to drive down the field for a potential winning field goal. With Ohio State facing a third-and-25 from the Oregon 43, the Ducks called a timeout with 10 seconds left.

Just before the ball was snapped, Oregon defensive back Dontae Manning walked onto the field, giving the Ducks an extra defender. Ohio State failed to complete a pass against Oregon’s 12-man defense on the next play, and the Ducks were flagged for an illegal substitution penalty.

Ohio State gained 5 yards on the penalty but lost four seconds off the clock since the penalty was deemed a live-ball foul. The Buckeyes were left with six seconds on the clock, and quarterback Will Howard scrambled up the middle, sliding a second too late for Ohio State to call a timeout for a potential game-winning field goal at the Oregon 26.

The Buckeyes dropped two spots to No. 4 in the AP Top 25 following the loss.

Reporting by The Associated Press.

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