NCAA to examine penalty loophole Oregon used on key play against Ohio State
Published:
The NCAA Rules Committee is looking into a loophole that Oregon’s coaching staff apparently used at the end of its pulsating victory over Ohio State on Saturday night.
A committee member told Yahoo Sports that the NCAA could take in-season action to address the play by telling officials to handle the situation differently in future games.
The NCAA Rules Committee is examining the loophole that Oregon coaches used against Ohio State, a committee official tells @YahooSports. They could take in-season action to address the play by directing officials to handle it differently in the future.https://t.co/5tw0q9Fs3q
— Ross Dellenger (@RossDellenger) October 15, 2024
Oregon’s 32-31 victory in Eugene in the top-5 showdown went down to the bitter end. At least one analyst believes that Ducks head coach Dan Lanning determined that committing an intentional penalty was the trade-off in the final seconds that would get his team to the finish line.
Following the game, Warren Sharp shared a video that focused on the final 10 seconds of the game, when Sharp believes Oregon intentionally employed a 12th defensive player after a timeout.
Lanning was asked at his Monday press conference if the penalty was intentional, and he had a knowing smile throughout his reply. While Lanning did not explicitly say “yes,” the answer illustrated how much time the Ducks put into unique situations such as the one on Saturday night.
“There was a timeout just before that (play). We spend an inordinate amount of time on situations. There are some situations that don’t show up very often in college football, but this one obviously was something we had worked on,” said Lanning. “You could see the result.”
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
