Overview
- The Big 12 acknowledged late Saturday that replay officials incorrectly awarded BYU a first-quarter touchdown after a goal-line fumble in the Cougars’ 27-20 win over Arizona State.
- On the play, QB Bear Bachmeier fumbled near the goal line, teammate Sione Moa was credited with recovery and a score after multiple reviews, but the conference said the ball should have been placed at the spot of recovery for third-and-goal.
- Rule 12-3-3-d-2, cited by the Big 12, says when replay shows the ball was not dead the recovering team gets the ball at the spot of recovery and any subsequent advance is nullified, which is why the conference called the touchdown an error.
- Broadcast rules analysts Mike Pereira and Robert Griffin III and ASU coach Kenny Dillingham publicly criticized the call on the FOX broadcast and on the sideline, arguing the play was wrongly advanced after being ruled dead.
- This admission follows two recent Big 12 postgame acknowledgments involving BYU and has prompted scrutiny of the conference’s centralized replay operations and end-of-game procedures even though final scores were not changed.