The Big Ten Conference admitted an officiating mistake late in Nebraska’s win over Maryland, after a missed extra point turned into a strange sequence that left the penalty yardage on the kickoff instead of forcing a re-kick.
The issue came with 6:35 remaining in the fourth quarter, when Maryland was flagged for roughing the snapper on a Nebraska extra-point attempt that kicker Kyle Cunanan missed. According to the league and Nebraska head coach Matt Rhule, the Big Ten official told the Nebraska sideline the kick was good, which led to the penalty being enforced on the kickoff rather than the point-after try itself.
“Since the attempt was missed, by rule, the penalty should have resulted in Nebraska retrying the attempt with the penalty yardage enforced half the distance to the goal,” the statement read. “However, the miss was allowed to stand and the penalty yardage was incorrectly enforced on the subsequent kickoff.
“The Big Ten has been in contact with its officiating team from Saturday's game regarding the error and will continue to emphasize consistent application of the playing rules.”
Rhule said Monday that he was the one who accepted the yardage after being told the kick had gone through.
“I asked 'did he make it' and he said, 'yeah' and I said, 'well, I'll take (the yardage) on the kickoff," Rhule said. "Then I looked up and I said, 'why is it 48 (points)' and he said, 'you missed it.'
“It's poor by me,” Rhule said. “I should have seen it didn't go through the uprights and they weren't holding their hands up.”
The game itself was a busy one for the officials, with 28 accepted penalties adding up to nearly 250 yards. Rhule also made his frustration clear after the game on Saturday.
“I thought it was ridiculous,” Rhule said Saturday. “I thought it was poorly handled by the officials and poorly done by us.
You've never heard me say that before, but I was frustrated today. There's things I've never had called before, can't explain.”
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