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The Oregon Ducks and head coach Dan Lanning appear to have exploited a massive loophole in college football‘s rules to help defeat Ohio State on Saturday night.
The Ducks led the Buckeyes 32-31 late in the contest with Ohio State driving to attempt to take the lead. After an offensive pass interference call, Ohio State faced 3rd-and-25 from the Oregon 43-yard line with just 10 seconds remaining.
On the ensuing play, the Ducks appeared to have communication issues before the snap. Ohio State threw an incomplete pass, but Oregon was called for too many men on the field.
As a result, the Buckeyes gained five yards, but four seconds ran off the clock during the play, taking it down to just six seconds remaining.
Ultimately, this was a huge benefit to Oregon. At that point, the time was significantly more important than the yards.
Oregon May Have Exploited A Huge Loophole In College Football’s Rules
So, why not intentionally have extra men on defense to avoid allowing a long completion that could put Ohio State in field goal range?
As it turns out, this is a huge loophole in college football’s rules. It’s one that the NFL fixed years ago thanks to legendary coach Buddy Ryan.
dan lanning accidentally ran buddy ryan’s polish goalline defense to win pic.twitter.com/A46zzXEiY2
— Brian Floyd (@BrianMFloyd) October 13, 2024
Ryan, who was the defensive coordinator for the legendary 1985 Chicago Bears, ran what he called the “Polish Goal Line Defense.”
With the clock under 15 seconds, he’d intentionally put too many men on the field to try to bleed the clock and leave the opponent with just one opportunity to win the game.
As a result, the NFL changed the rule and made too many men a presnap penalty, meaning the time did not come off the clock.
But the college rule is different. Meaning that it’s advantageous for the defense to have too many men on the field. Several fans thought it was a stroke of genius on Lanning’s part.
if Dan Lanning purposefully sent 12 men out there to bleed clock and put OSU in an “impossible” situation
Statue
— Liam Blutman (@Blutman27) October 13, 2024
Nobody asked Lanning if he meant to send out 12 players in the postgame press conference. He likely would not have answered truthfully if he did.
But either way, he may have just broken college football by exploiting its rules in an extremely clever way.