This past weekend Oklahoma football took on the Texas Longhorns in the Red River showdown. Up 31-17 with eight minutes left in the fourth quarter, it seemed like the Sooners were on their way to victory.
However, once Texas had possession of the ball again around the six-minute mark, quarterback Sam Ehlinger ran for 20 yards that was originally ruled a first down. After a lengthy review of the play, the officials ruled Ehlinger was short of the first down mark.
Setting the clock back to 6:36 following the ruling on the field, the officials had actually set the game clock back incorrectly, adding 39 undeserved seconds to the clock for the Longhorn offense.
Already within field goal range, the Longhorns inevitably scored, causing the Sooners to only be up by one touchdown. After a quick turnover from Oklahoma, the Longhorns had the ball with two minutes left on the clock for the Texas offense.
The problem presented by the clock error is that Texas took almost the full two minutes to score its game-tying touching down and extra point, whereas if the correct time was presented on the clock (1:41) the Longhorns inevitably would not have had time to score a second touchdown and the game would have more than likely never gone into overtime.
The Big 12’s announcement of this clock error on Monday caused a stir in conversation among the whole Big-12 Conference with one question in mind.
What if Texas would have won?
Following the announcement this is what Lincoln Riley had to say regarding the incident:
“Several of us, right away, when they came over the loudspeaker and said 6:36, we obviously knew that wasn’t correct. I thought we made a fairly good argument on the sideline, but the officials were pretty convinced it was right.”
The Big 12’s officiating crew struck lucky due to Oklahoma football winning the game. The mistake was also overshadowed by the SEC’s officiating mistake during the Arkansas vs. Auburn game that resulted in an Arkansas loss that should have been a win.
Statement on play at :30 to go in fourth quarter of Arkansas-Auburn game. pic.twitter.com/L1UQRlFx2M
— SEC Officiating (@SECOfficiating) October 11, 2020
Photo by Mady Daddario
