The loophole that Oregon used to close out a win against Ohio State won’t be an option in the future.
The NCAA issued a rules interpretation on Wednesday advising officials how to handle a too many men on the field penalty in the final two minutes of a game.
Moving forward, 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 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.
The ruling from NCAA Football Secretary-Rules Editor Steve Shaw comes just days after Oregon coach Dan Lanning told the media he purposely took a 12-men on the field penalty to help run out the clock and close out the Buckeyes, 32-31.
“Football is a very dynamic game,” 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.”
The Ducks (6-0) travel to face Purdue (1-5) on Friday while Ohio State (5-1) in on bye.
