re: How is this different?

quote:

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How is this different?

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I’m going to assume that this is a serious question and not a clever swipe at your fellow fans that honestly don’t see the difference, and I’ll answer:

How they are similar:
1. Something happened that modifies the rule of how the play would have been ruled had it gone according to plan (fumble for Auburn, batted pass caught by the SC QB)
2. Clearly a backward pass that was not seen until review, and play was whistled dead prematurely/errantly
3. There was confusion among the players of both teams, and hesitation in continuing to play.

How they were different:
1. Auburn was trying and failing to execute a spike of the ball (when a pass straight into the ground is actually legal, something all but 1 officials thought occurred) but was illegal due to the fumble, while SC had caught a batted pass and thrown again, illegally.
2. Auburn held during the attempted fumble recovery (I can’t find evidence in the rules where this is legal or illegal so until then, I’m going to assume that this might be like a tipped pass where it’s totally legal to tackle a player going for the ball, show me otherwise and we can agree that Auburn would have had a more difficult FG attempt and might very well have missed)
3. And here’s the most important distinction. From when the whistle blew until when it was recovered, next to an Auburn player that had heard the repeated whistle blows from the ref whose foot the ball bounced off of, and quit trying for it, 3.5 seconds had elapsed. In the SC v Mizzou game, 0.15 seconds had elapsed when the whistle blew, the recovering player was literally in the air about to land on the ball and no SC player was anywhere near it. No one but Mizzou was going to recover that ball, whistle, or not. Immediate recovery for Mizzou, NOT an immediate recovery for Arkansas.

Arkansas did get screwed because had the whistle not been blown, they would have had a good chance to recover it, or even had Auburn recovered, it would have been a longer FG-attempt. But after the premature whistle, (and who can blame them, it’s a once-in-a-lifetime scenario) they made the correct ruling. But this claiming the win thing, come on Arky. This is some sad shite right here. Not a damn one of you would relinquish the win had your team been in this position. Arkansas did not win the game. Not according to the rules. Not according to the record.