Officially: How Some Games Are Lost

Twenty years ago, the Colorado Buffaloes (11-1-1) earned a share of the National Championship with the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets (11-0-1), even though GT was the lone team without a loss on the season.  What is even more miraculous, is the fact that the Buffaloes were given 5 downs in their game against Missouri some 1,040 weekends ago...

This transgression occurred on the final series which produced the game-winning touchdown.  If it has been a while, or if you cannot recall this event, you just have to see incompetence being rewarded to fully appreciate it:

Colorado/Missouri 5th Down.

Are you piecing this together yet?  Colorado's share of the National Championship was first made possible by an entire officiating crew not knowing that an extra play allowed a team to win a game it had no business winning.  Secondly, once this little factoid was realized, the NCAA did nothing about it.  Nada.  Zip.  Zilch.  I mean, besides the "letter of apology" which was sent to the Missouri Tigers...

• "We are really, really, really sorry about not righting this obvious wrong.  Yes, we know that Colorado was the beneficiary of an extra down, but that was an honest mistake by the Big 8 Officiating Crew.  We hope you understand." ~ Love, the NCAA

 Can you imagine if your bank acted this way?

• "We are sorry that we deposited your $10,000 in the wrong account, but our day is finished at your bank, our books are balanced, debits and credits have all cleared.  Again, we are very, very sorry, but this deposit now belongs to Billy Bob.  While Billy Bob knows this deposit should not be his, it was an honest mistake on our part and we cannot make the correction as again, our day has ended." ~ Love, the Bank YOU are now taking to court

Thirdly, at season's end, the voters of the AP actually awarded their National Championship to the Buffaloes with the knowledge of the 5th down having actually occurred.  Do you ever just sit back and wonder how some people can manage to put one foot in front of the other and not do a faceplant on the hour?  How was this atrocity not corrected?  Moreover, the fact that the team was actually rewarded with the AP National Championship while an undefeated GT team sat idly by, without needing 5th down to score in any of their games, is comical and a shining example as to just what a managerial disaster college football was then and still is today.  I'm certain, were this to happen again, it would be handled in the same exact fashion.

This is why I love golf.  All Tiger jokes aside, PGA Tour professionals do not cheat, they call penalties on themselves, and actually correct transgressions on the spot or soon thereafter.  Whether it would be Craig Stadler getting disqualified by a TV viewer, or Dustin Johnson being alerted by a PGA Rules Official while walking off the 18th green on Sunday at this year's US Open, the PGA Tour does its best to apply rules fairly, swiftly, and obviously at times, painfully.  At the very least, they are objective rather than being subjective, and that is really all we can ask for as fans.

Speaking of subjectivity, we are going to have to head back to college football for another possible questionable call.  Yesterday, LSU and Florida came down to the wire, with the Tigers coming out on top 33-29 over the Gators with a late touchdown to stun the Gator faithful in Gainesville.  During the game winning drive, LSU was preparing to go for an apparent game tieing field goal, but Coach Les Miles called for the fake.  The ball was snapped, the holder received the ball cleanly and casually tossed it over his shoulder from the 43 yard line.  The ball lands on exactly the 43 yard line, to the holder's back, technically making this a backwards pass.   It lands in front of the intended recipient, the kicker, who fields it cleanly after one bounce and runs for a first down as it is called on the field.   Take a look...

Fake Field Goal: LSU/Florida

Here is where is gets tricky.  Rule 7-2-2, if it is aptly applied, will cause controversy in this game's outcome going forward.  According to the above cited rule, a fumble recovered on fourth down by a player of the fumbling team other than the fumbler himself is dead when recovered and is returned to the spot of the fumble.

After a very long review, the replay official determines that it was a backwards pass, which was true, but makes no mention of this rule, and how only the last player to hold the ball prior to it hitting the turf can advance it.  I think one of two things occurred here:  either the officials upstairs knew they missed this and could not bring themselves to calling it correctly, thus the extra long review and debate on how to handle the situation.  Or, they forgot this rule altogether and were merely focusing on whether the toss over the shoulder was a forward pass, which would have been ruled incomplete and essentially ending the game as Florida would have taken over and ran out the clock.

By the letter of the rule, it appears Florida has a legitimate beef with the NCAA.  Were this the PGA Tour, and after further review, LSU might be chalking up its first loss of this season.  It seems that would be the right thing to do.