This would have helped Ohio State on Saturday night in Eugene.
A major point of discussion since the battle between the then No. 2 ranked Ohio State Buckeyes and then No. 3 ranked Oregon Ducks was the game’s finish.
Oregon was called for an illegal substitution for having 12 players on the field. This resulted in a five-yard penalty but more importantly, the Ohio State offense lost valuable seconds off the clock that prevented them from attempting a game-winning field goal.
On Wednesday afternoon, the NCAA issued a statement regarding the rule with a new interpretation. Moving forward, if a team is called for 12 men on the field, the offense will now have the option to have the clock reset.
After the two-minute timeout in either half, if the defense commits a substitution foul and 12 or more players are on the field and participate in a down, officials will penalize the defense for the foul and, at the option of the offended team, reset the game clock back to the time displayed at the snap.
The game clock will then restart on the next snap. If the 12th defender was attempting to exit but was still on the field at the snap and had no influence on the play, then the normal substitution penalty of 5 yards would be enforced with no clock adjustment.
“Football is a very dynamic game,” NCAA Football Secretary-Rules Editor Steve Shaw said. “Occasionally there are specific situations where committing a penalty can give a team an advantage. A guiding principle of the NCAA Football Rules Committee is that there should be no benefit when a team commits a penalty. The goal of this in-season interpretation is to eliminate a potential clock advantage for committing a substitution foul and take away any gain for the defense if they violate the substitution rule.”
