PROVO, UT – Oops. That’s essentially what the Big 12 had to say about an hour after an instant classic between No. 2 Notre Dame and No. 8 BYU.
The Fighting Irish rallied from a 21-10 halftime deficit to take a 24-21 lead, only to fall behind again, 28-24, in the closing moments.
Quarterback CJ Carr then engineered a potential game-winning drive, moving Notre Dame to the BYU 8-yard line.
With four seconds remaining, Carr fired toward Jaden Greathouse in the right corner of the end zone. There was contact between Greathouse and the BYU defender, but no flag was thrown.
More importantly, the clock never stopped.
That missing second prompted the Big 12 to issue the following explanation:
“Following the Big 12’s review of the final play of Saturday’s Notre Dame-BYU game, it was determined that time remained on the clock when the ball hit the ground,” the Big 12’s statement read, “and the play was incorrectly cleared by the replay officiating crew.
“The Conference will conduct a complete review of its end-of-game officiating process in advance of next week’s games.”
Carr had already been nearly impossible to kill on Notre Dame’s final possession.
He converted 4th-and-3, 3rd-and-10, 3rd-and-3 and 4th-and-5, repeatedly dragging the Irish back from the brink.
Did he have one final clutch moment left?
A victory likely would have pushed Notre Dame to No. 1 in the US LBM Coaches Poll after No. 1 Georgia, No. 4 Indiana, No. 6 Texas and No. 7 Alabama all lost earlier Saturday, Oct. 17.
BYU coach Kalani Sitake said after the game he immediately thought the Cougars had won on what everyone believed was the final play.
Except, as officials later acknowledged, it never should have been the final play.
Sitake even believed Carr’s pass had come on fourth down. It hadn’t. Carr had converted fourth down one snap earlier, finding Micah Gilbert for six yards to keep Notre Dame alive.
“It was chaos, man,” Irish coach Marcus Freeman said. “I’m obviously going to probably feel some type of way when I’m out there. We’ll watch it. But it is what it is.
“I know people are going to look for me to put blame on somebody else. That’s not what we do around here. We own it. And we’ve got to be better and we’ve got to execute, no matter what the situation is.”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Big 12 admits blown call, says Notre Dame deserved one more play vs BYU
