NCAA examining rule loophole Oregon used vs. Ohio State with intentional penalty

The NCAA is examining the loophole exploited by the Oregon Ducks at the end of their victory over the Ohio State Buckeyes where they intentionally took a penalty for having 12 men on the field.

As the final seconds ticked away in Saturday’s contest between the two freshly-minted Big Ten rivals, the Ducks were called for a 12-men penalty. This put Ohio State five yards closer to field goal range but more importantly, time was taken off the clock and got Dan Lanning and his team closer to a marquee victory.

At the time, the foul was seen as a harmless one but social media caught up pretty quick. Turns out, Lanning intentionally sent 12 players onto the field for the play, giving his secondary an extra player. The pass from Will Howard fell incomplete, the sequence took four seconds in its entirety. And since the penalty was considered a live-ball one, no time was added back out.

After Lanning admitted to the penalty being intentional, the move hasn’t sat right with the NCAA, or many fans outside of Eugene. According to Ross Dellenger of Yahoo Sports, the NCAA is trying to figure out a way to ensure the tactic doesn’t become commonplace in college football.

“Oregon coaches exploited a loophole in the rulebook and it could result in in-season action from the NCAA,” Dellenger reported. “… Steve Shaw, the NCAA secretary rules editor, told Yahoo Sports on Tuesday that the NCAA Football Playing Rules Committee is actively ‘engaged’ in examining the play for possible action. The Big Ten officiating crew handled the play appropriately, Shaw said, but the rules committee is discussing a way to address the play.

“In the past, the rules committee has responded to such ‘fair play’ incidents with interpretation bulletins released during a season. The bulletins are often meant to be a directive for officials in games in the future.”

According to Dellenger, the way to enforce a similar situation in the future would be to put time back on the clock: “To discourage the action in the Oregon-Ohio State game, any interpretation would likely direct officials to return the game clock to its original time. Shaw declined to comment on any specifics,” he added.

It makes sense that the NCAA would want to stop the copycat decisions from coaches throughout college football. Oregon and Dan Lanning got away with one at the end of their clash with Ohio State, but they may be the last team to benefit from the penalty if officials adjust their interpretation moving forward.

On3’s Griffin McVeigh contributed to this article.