An NCAA blocked pass on the back of a penalty allowed Oregon to burn the clock on Ohio State's final drive.

The National Coordinator of College Football Officials interpreted a rule Wednesday meant to close Oregon's punt in a win over Ohio State and give the offensive team the option to reset the play clock if the defense plays 12 or more players on the final play. Two minutes in both halves.

On Saturday, Oregon appeared to be intentionally using 12 players in an attempt to kill the clock on what proved to be the second-to-last play of a 32-31 win over the Buckeyes. While penalizing the Ducks for an incomplete pass, the four seconds off the clock was more beneficial to Ohio State than the 5-yard penalty to Oregon.

The Buckeyes were still out of field goal range. They ran one more play with six seconds left in the fourth quarter, but time ran out.

“Football is a very dynamic game,” Steve Shaw, coordinator of officials and rules editor for the NCAA secretary, said in a statement. “Sometimes there are certain situations where taking a penalty can give a team an advantage. A guiding principle of the NCAA Football Rules Committee is that there should be no gain when a team commits a penalty. The goal of this in-season clarification is to eliminate potential clock benefits for substitution fouls and to take away any gain for the defense when the substitution rule is violated.”

Using a previously approved rule to penalize teams for committing “a blatant and blatantly unfair act designed to stop the clock,” the Rules Committee approved a new interpretation of end-game substitution fouls.

“After a two-minute timeout in either half, if the defense commits a substitution foul and 12 or more players are on the field and participate in a down, the officials shall penalize the defense for the foul and, at the option of the offending team, reset the play clock at the time displayed on the snap, ” reads the explanation. “The game clock will restart on the next snap. If the 12th defender attempts to exit but is still on the field at the snap and has no effect on the play, the normal substitution penalty will be applied with no clock adjustment.”

A 5-yard penalty will be assessed regardless, but the choice to reset the game clock will be made by the offense. The idea behind it, Shaw said, is to have a late-game situation where the offense uses the clock to run out to its advantage.

The “blatant and obvious foul play” rule was in response to a defensive team intentionally attempting to draw a holding penalty or pass interference penalty late in the game to burn time while trying to protect a lead. In that case, the foul, if deemed intentional, is elevated to a 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct.

Shaw said the rules committee determined it would be difficult for officials to decide whether a team intentionally used 12 or more defensive players, and because resetting the clock was a more important element, the illegal substitution foul did not need to be upgraded to an unsportsmanlike one. . ritual

Oregon coach Dan Lanning stopped short of confirming the truth Monday that the Ducks intentionally used a 12th defender in the critical final game against Ohio State.

“We spend too much time on the situation,” Lanning told reporters with a slight smile on his face. “There are situations that don't come up very often in college football, but this is one that obviously we've worked on. So, you can see the results.”

Ohio State faced third-and-25 from the Oregon 43 with 10 seconds left in the fourth quarter and the Ducks leading by one. Oregon called a timeout but seemed to have trouble getting its defensive personnel back on the field.

The play ended with the Ducks having 12 players on the field, and that resulted in Will Howard throwing an incomplete pass to a well-covered receiver. Four seconds ran off the clock, and Oregon was flagged for an illegal substitution. A 5-yard penalty gave Ohio State the ball at the 38 with 6 seconds left, still needing more yardage to have a realistic chance at a field goal. Buckeyes kicker Jayden Fielding had a career long of 47 yards.

The Buckeyes ran one more play, but Howard's 12-yard scramble burned up the rest of the clock.

(Photo: Ali Gradisher/Getty Images)