The Big 12 acknowledged late Saturday night that an officiating error occurred on the final play of Notre Dame's loss to BYU, a top-10 showdown that appeared to end with the Cougars' defense making the game-clinching stop.
But Marcus Freeman won't point fingers at officials for the Fighting Irish's defeat.
"It is what it is. I know people are going to look for me to put blame on somebody else, but that's not what we do around here," Freeman said after the loss. "We own it. And we've got to be better, and we've got to execute no matter what the situation is."
"We own it, and we've got to be better, and we've got to execute no matter what the situation is." Notre Dame
head coach Marcus Freeman takes ownership after the Irish fall 28-24 to BYU on the final play in Provo pic.twitter.com/cFRdrVPGnW
— Brendan Reidy (@BreidyTV) October 18, 2026
The final play of the game featured two potential officiating errors, including an acknowledgment by the Big 12 that there was a second remaining on the game clock.
"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."
Another issue saw officials swallow their whistles on a potential defensive pass interference that would have given the Fighting Irish an untimed down — assuming the clock error wasn't addressed — for a final play at roughly the 5-yard line.
CJ Carr's pass fell incomplete to Jaden Greathouse in the right corner of the end zone. There was additional contact between Greathouse and the BYU cornerback Evan Johnson on the play, but no flag was thrown for defensive pass interference.
"I think it warranted a flag. That's a lot of contact where you're not playing the ball... I would've supported a DPI."
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) October 18, 2026
ESPN/ABC rules analyst Matt Austin on the Notre Dame-BYU finish.
(There's also the question of the field clock, which showed 1 second remaining) pic.twitter.com/JzKewlL57a
The loss doesn't eliminate the Fighting Irish from College Football Playoff contention, but it does reduce their margin of error. It is worth noting that Notre Dame has a Memorandum of Understanding with the CFP committee starting this year that would put the Fighting Irish in the CFP if it's ranked in the top 12 of the CFP rankings.
Notre Dame will have Week 8 off before traveling to Gillette Stadium in Week 9 to take on Navy at noon ET on Saturday, Oct. 31.
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Marcus Freeman won't blame Big 12 officiating in controversial loss: 'Not what we do'
