Big 12 officials didn’t just blow a call on Notre Dame’s final snap against BYU. They took away the Irish’s last chance to answer.
Notre Dame still had plenty to clean up from Saturday night, and CJ Carr could have done more to help the Irish against BYU. But the game’s finish turned into something bigger than a missed throw or a debated flag.
With three seconds left, Notre Dame got one more crack at the end zone while trying to avoid the upset. Carr looked for Jaden Greathouse on the final pass, but the ball hit the ground and BYU’s victory celebration started. Except that the story wasn’t actually over.
Two issues surfaced on the final play. The first was the lack of a defensive pass interference flag on the BYU defender, which was the kind of judgment call that can spark plenty of argument. The second was far more damaging: questions immediately arose about the game clock.
Shortly after the game, several former officials, including Terry McAulay, said there was, in fact, one second left and replay should have shown that. The ABC broadcast appeared to show the stadium clock at LaVell Edwards Stadium at 0:01 when the ball hit the ground, yet the officials ended the game anyway.
That’s where the Big 12 made matters worse. In a statement released a few hours later, the conference admitted the officials got it wrong.
"Following the Big 12’s review of the final play of Saturday’s Notre Dame-BYU game, it was determined that time remained on the clock when the ball hit the ground, and the play was incorrectly cleared by the replay officiating crew. The Conference will conduct a complete review of its end-of-game officiating process in advance of next week's games."
The official statement only confirmed what the video seemed to show: Notre Dame should have had one more play, this one from 2nd and goal. Instead, the game ended there.
The clock controversy also brought back memories of Week 1’s Michigan-Western Michigan finish, though this time the broadcast and the officials did not line up the same way. In that earlier case, the NBC broadcast showed zeroes and the referees used replay to put a second back on the clock. Here, the officials appeared to move in the opposite direction and let the game end.
That didn’t make it any easier for Notre Dame, which now takes a significant hit to its College Football Playoff hopes. It’s one thing to say officiating shaped a game. It’s another to watch a team get denied its final snap and then hear the conference admit the crew got the ending wrong.
For the Irish, the frustration doesn’t go away quickly. They head into the bye carrying a result that felt wrong in real time and looks even worse after the Big 12’s review.
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Notre Dame Loss To BYU Now Comes With An Officiating Controversy
Notre Dames 28-24 loss at BYU was already the kind of game that lingers, and now it comes with an officiating wrinkle that only deepens the frustration. The Big 12 acknowledged after the fact that there should have been one second left on the clock after the final play, meaning the replay officiating crew ended the game too soon in a mistake that wiped out any chance for one last snap.
For Notre Dame, the result still stands, but the disclosure adds another layer to a defeat that could matter beyond the box score. The conference said it will review its end-of-game officiating process, and for the Irish, the larger issue is how a game like this may be viewed when the College Football Playoff Committee starts sorting through close calls and rsum questions later on. [Read more 🡒]