Big 12 officials robbed Notre Dame of its final chance to beat BYU

Two things can be true at the same time. Notre Dame, and especially CJ Carr, should have put together a better performance against BYU on Saturday night. But even if the Fighting Irish had chances to win before the final play, the Big 12 officials took away that final play through sheer incompetence, which is not remotely acceptable.

It's one thing to gripe about a judgment call like the lack of a pass interference penalty on Carr's last-ditch fade route in the endzone. It's another for the Big 12 to admit the officials allowed the game to end with one second on the clock.

And yet, with three seconds left, Notre Dame had one last shot at the end zone while trying to avoid an upset against BYU. CJ Carr tried to find Jaden Greathouse on the final pass, but it fell incomplete, meaning the Cougars pulled off the victory. Except that they didn't ... really.

On that final play, two controversies emerged. One was a decision not to throw a flag for defensive pass interference on the BYU defender. That judgment call was bad, but you could dismiss it as "things that happen." The other mirrored Week 1’s Michigan vs. Western Michigan game as questions rose about the game clock.

Big 12 admits officiating error cost Notre Dame football a final goal-line play against BYU

Shortly after the game, several former officials, including Terry McAulay, said there was, in fact, one second left and replay should have shown that. The ABC broadcast appeared to show the stadium clock at LaVell Edwards Stadium at 0:01 when the ball hit the ground. However, the officials declared the game over, and the celebration began.

It’s not the same scenario as the Michigan game; the NBC broadcast showed zeroes, and the referees went to replay to add a second back. It's hard not to think that the end of that game wasn't in the officials' minds, and they decided to avoid controversy, only to create their own by ignoring the rules.

To add insult to injury, the Big 12 Conference released a statement a few hours after the game, admitting that, yes, there should have been one second left on the clock and Notre Dame should have had one more try at the end zone on 2nd and goal.

"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, and the play was incorrectly cleared by the replay officiating crew. The Conference will conduct a complete review of its end-of-game officiating process in advance of next week's games."

It's neat and all that the conference will try and avoid this level of asthonishing incompetence next week. That doesn't help Notre Dame, which took a massive hit in its chances to make the College Football Playoff.

It always feels like a cop-out when anyone claims the refs caused a specific outcome. However, too many games this year have had the people in charge of the referees admit that the crew had an outsized impact.

It's incredibly frustrating that Notre Dame was in a game they could have won but didn't, not because of anything they did, but because they weren't truly given the chance. Now the Irish will sit and stew for two weeks as they enter the bye in the most painful way possible.

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