I can't believe what I just saw. Wisconsin down 32-30 with 18 seconds to go, no timeouts and the ball at the Arizona State 20 yard line. First and 10. QB runs to the left to give the kicker the left hash mark and basically "gives himself up" by placing the ball on the ground (no defender touched him). That was weird to begin with, but legal. An Arizona State player or players fall on the ball as if to say it is their ball. So the clock is ticking and Wisconsin is waiting on the refs to try to simply spike the ball on 2nd down to stop the clock and kick the game winning FG. The refs should have thrown a flag for delay of game on ASU since they were delaying Wisconsin the chance to run the next play. Even as the clock is running down under 5 seconds, the ref spotting the ball who finally cleared the ASU players away but then tells the center to hold on for a couple seconds more, and Wisconsin finally hikes the ball 1/2 second after the clock expires. A ref gave a brief explanation to the Wisconsin head coach and then the head ref ordered all the refs off the field and they ran like hell (even though the game was played at ASU).
I saw that too and was astounded. Then I thought about it and Wisconsin deserved to lose. First of all, with so little time and no timeouts it was idiotic to try to center the ball in that situation, just kick the damn field goal and its over. :18 left, clock is stopped, ball on the 13, no timeouts. Why the hell did they do anything besides kick the FG and win the game? Don't get cute. Secondly, Wisconsin's QB should have taken a knee like he's seen every QB in the history of football do before now. It makes your intention crystal clear. Placing the ball on the ground with his hand? Who the hell knows what that is? It looks like a fumble to the defense. Take a knee and everyone knows you're giving yourself up. At first I thought that the ASU player was up to shenanigans trying to delay. But he quite possibly couldn't see what the hell happened and fell on top of a loose ball on the ground. I would have. Shame on UW for not having their shit together. Yes, they kinda got screwed, but it's more their own fault they got screwed than the refs.
The refs screwed up all right. The quarterback put the ball on the ground while he was still standing up, so that should have been a turnover. Arizona's ball.
So, people here are blaming the refs, for the most part. What if this happened to LSU? It would be all Les Miles' fault, right?
Just looked at the highlights - http://espn.go.com/college-football...l-arizona-state-sun-devils-bizarre-final-play - and it looks to me like the QB did a quick kneeldown before standing up and putting the ball down. Would like to see a closeup - maybe the ref thought he didn't actually put the knee down - but I think the refs blew this one.
