Stop us if you've heard this before: The Big 12 has issued a statement acknowledging an officiating error in one of its games.
The latest such example came in the Saturday, Oct. 31 meeting between No. 9 BYU and Arizona State
football in Provo, Utah, a 27-20 win for the Cougars. The error occurred in the first quarter of the game following two reviews by officials that ultimately awarded BYU a go-ahead touchdown to take an early 7-0 lead."The play showed that the runner lost possession of the ball prior to the forward progress spot, and the ball was recovered by another BYU player at the two-yard line and he was awarded a touchdown," the Big 12
statement reads. "Rule 12-3-3-d-2 states, 'If the replay official rules that the ball was not dead, it belongs to the recovering team at the spot of the recovery and any advance is nullified.'
"Replay was incorrect in awarding a score. The correct ruling should have been BYU ball for a third-and-goal attempt from the 2-yard line."
Initially, officials determined that BYU quarterback Bear Bachmeier had fumbled the ball at the goal line, and that the ball had been recovered by running back Sione Moa. However, officials reviewed the play again, determining that Moa had recovered the ball in the end zone for a fumble recovery touchdown, despite the playing having been called dead on the field.
The entire sequence had Fox's broadcast crew — including rules analyst Mike Pereira and analyst Robert Griffin III — heated on the broadcast.
"This is not the type of situation that you have when a runner steps out of bounds where you can continue in action," Pereira said on the broadcast. "This was a player that recovered the ball and got up in the field of play. The ruling on the field was the runner was down initially.
"And if that's the case, you've ruled it dead. You can give a recovery, but you can't give an advance, unless you've come up with a new rule here, which I'm not too sure you can really do."
Said Griffin: "This is three weeks in a row where we've had Big 12 officials just making up rules as they go."
Indeed, officiating errors have become something of a recurring issue over the last three weeks, with each of the games involving BYU.
The Cougars' Week 7 win vs. No. 2 Notre Dame was fairly egregious, as officials not only declined to call pass interference on the final play of the game, but also ended the contest a second early in a 28-24 BYU win. Though not as directly impactful, BYU defensive lineman Justin Kirkland admitted to yelling "hut" on a goal-to-go situation against Notre Dame, resulting in a costly CJ Carr fumble. Officials did not notice the infraction.
A week later, BYU nearly scored another win vs Central Florida after blocking a potential game-winning field goal against the Knights before the Cougars themselves were the victims of a perceived bad call in overtime.
It remains to be seen what, if anything, the conference can do to curb its string of officiating blunders.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Big 12: Officials shouldn't have awarded touchdown to BYU against ASU
