Untimed Down Chippewa Hail Mary Miracle: What Happened?

In week 2 of the NCAA regular season, Central Michigan stunned #22 Oklahoma State 30-27, on what may have already given us the Play of the Year for the 2016 season.

With no time left on the clock on an "untimed down", Chippewa QB Cooper Rush threw a 42-yard Hail Mary to Jesse Kroll short of the goal line. As Kroll was tackled, he flipped the ball back to trailing receiver Malik Fountain at the 9, who then ran across the field to just inside the opposite pylon for the game-winning touchdown.

If you haven't seen it already, here's the play.


Central Michigan was declared the victor. Later it was brought to the attention of the officials that they had made an error in granting CMU the untimed down.  That came after Oklahoma State was called for intentional grounding on their 4th down- on a play where rather than punting, the Cowboys sent NO receivers downfield for the "pass play", as the ball was snapped with 4 seconds left on the clock.

According to Rule 3-2-3 of the NCAA rule-book: "The period is not extended if the foul is by the team in possession and the penalty includes loss of down."

There is currently no mechanism in the NCAA to change the results of a game if such an error is made, even if it falls on the last play of the game. [see Duke-Miami 2015]. Article 3b of the NCAA rule-book states: When the referee declares that the game is ended, the score is final. Many are calling for that rule to be changed to allow for corrections of errors on the last play of the game, and that proposal should be given some consideration.

The MAC officials (on the field) and the Big XII officials (in the booth, who can alert officials on the field in circumstances such as these when significant errors are made) were subsequently given a two game suspension.

Many think Oklahoma State has been cheated out of a win that could become significant if they are in contention for the college football playoffs.

However, what I believe ALSO requires serious consideration is that rule about not extending the game on a loss-of-down penalty, particularly in the case of a change of possession. In other words it seems to me that the officials' ruling, though  it was not a correct interpretation of the rules as they exist, was probably a better, fairer one. The current wording of the rule seems to assume that the team committing the penalty is trying to retain possession of the ball, and does not take into consideration the exact situation which occurred: a loss-of-down penalty AND change of possession.

[Loss-of-down penalties are few, and they only include intentional grounding and some form of illegal touching or kicking the ball.]

Though their ruling was incorrect according to the letter of current  rules, the officials "common sense" decision that a team should not benefit from committing a penalty would seem to hold the higher moral ground, even if there is an appeal process applied to the ending of games.

Allowing CMU an untimed down after the intentional grounding honestly seems like the more reasonable thing to do. As it stands, any team ahead on 4th down, can literally run out the clock, and then intentionally ground the ball (actually throw the ball high and out of bounds) or kick the ball around to run out the clock, leave all their eligible receivers in to block, and the penalty will not count against them.

Many sports have written into their rules an allowance for the officials to interpret the rules and make judgements in any instance not covered by the rules, or when a player or team somehow "makes a mockery" of the rules by exploiting them.

If we really wanted to go down in the weeds, we could say that in such cases the clock should have been reset to the instant the penalty occurred: i.e. as it was an INTENTIONAL grounding penalty when the ball was released from the QB's hands- especially as there were no eligible receivers going downfield for the pass, and the penalty is one of taking a deliberate action, rather than the consequence. I don't have a view of the clock and exactly when that ball was thrown (presumably there was or the QB would have just knelt down as the clock struck 0); but if there was indeed any time left on the clock, the loss-of-down and change of possession should have taken place at that point.