[Husker] officiating question regarding final play

[Bob Clouston (rclousto)]

I found the correct rule for this, and it agrees with what ESPN is
reporting today that the SunBelt conference is saying about the play.

Rule 9-2-b-1 says that players and coaches can't come out onto the
field.  The penalty is a dead ball foul, 15 yards, and obviously both
teams should have been penalized.  The game is not extended on dead ball
offsetting fouls so the game would've ended.  The only effect is that
Michigan shouldn't have gotten credit for the 50 or 60 yards covered on
that play.

So I was wrong in saying this down should have been replayed, but for
live ball offsetting fouls (for example, had there been a clip called on
Michigan and a face mask against Nebraska), the period is extended.

Bob

-----Original Message-----
From: Bob Clouston (rclousto) 
Sent: Thursday, December 29, 2005 1:59 PM
To: 'Mike Nolan'; husker at romaine.tssi.com
Subject: RE: [Husker] officiating question regarding final play

I've been reading the rules
(www.ncaa.org/library/rules/2005/2005_football_rules.pdf) about a few
things regarding that last play.

Rule 3.2.3.b says that a period is extended after offsetting penalties,
so Michigan would've gotten another play, from the original line of
scrimmage.  I would guess we'd call a timeout and talk about how to
cover this play better, and to make sure everyone continues playing
until the whistle blows!  We had a couple guys watch the play go right
by them.  

It's not completely clear to me that there was a penalty to be called.
Rule 9.1.4 talks about illegal interference.  I didn't see anyone
actually interfering with the play.  In fact some of the Michigan
players were a lot closer to interfering over by their sideline, though
they all seemed to get out of the way by the time the runner got there.
I don't know if they got in the way of any defender.  9.1.4.b talks
about participation by more than 11 players, that could apply, assuming
that being on the field equates to participation.  That probably would
apply, to both teams.  9-1-5-a talks about being between the coaching
box and the sidelines, and gives the referee the discretion to giving a
warning or throwing a flag.  So I don't really know.  If you wanted to
strictly enforce nobody other than your 11 players on the field during a
play, you could throw a lot of flags on coaches and players crossing the
sidelines.  This was an extreme case, but again, was there any
interference with the play?