I think my head just exploded with all those tiebreaker scenarios. 

A decade straight is not nearly long enough…

Clearly I’m in the minority opinion here and, though most of you probably won’t believe me, I’m very conservative as it relates to the rules of the game and what is acceptable and what is not. I’m just not seeing the egregiousness of the tactic.  I’m just not. There’s way more egregious shit going on in that sport, on TV, behind the scenes, etc.  I don’t believe it should have happened but it did. And at the time of the occurrence, it wasn’t forbidden. I do hope something  is enacted in the near future to prevent it.  Until then, I call it gamesmanship, while a lot of you call it unsportsmanlike conduct.  You have your opinion which you’re entitled to and obviously you’ve seen my personal opinion and, to use a current favorite colloquialism of this board…. I’ll die on that hill!  :-)

Go Bucks. Beat Bye Week!

Sadly I believe there is more truth to this than any of us are willing to admit. 

I can come up with hypotheticals all day long. Football is a dangerous sport where bad injuries occur. You’re utilizing fallacy in your argument by coming up with the randomness of the universe to support your argument having one extra player on the field raises the danger level exponentially. If you want to bring a statistician in to specifically determine what percentage of the time your hypothetical would occur, I’m happy to listen and would be open to changing my opinion if the facts dictated so. Otherwise, I’m going to fall back on the absolute randomness of your scenario. And shit happens. Hell, I spent 6 months on crutches after surgery from a blown out knee taking a hard hit while catching a pass in a pick up game of coed two hand touch in college. If I didn’t want that to be even a minute possibility, I probably shouldn’t have played. Shit happens and football is dangerous. 

I respectfully disagree with the notion that I’m being intentionally obtuse. It’s a game. We lost in part to a very sketchy tactic, though I’m sure we can all agree that is far from the only reason we lost. But one that is not expressly prohibited.  I agree that this practice shouldn’t occur but it was not illegal when it occurred. Hopefully it’s resolved soon and it won’t happen again. 

My final point… and then I’ll shut the hell up… We’re in the era of NIL. Savory gamesmanship, coaching practices / strategies, loyalty to a school/team or even fair play, and spirit of amateur competition are over.  It’s a new world order in college sports.  Better get used to it. This is college football in 2024. I don’t necessarily like it… but it’s how the game is played now. 
 

(and please don’t try to equate this to what those cheating fucks did up north. It’s 2 completely different beasts). 

Touché. I can live with this take. I suppose he oughta find a way to beat tcun a few times (within the rules, of course) before we start considering who to commission as a sculptor. 

Uhh… if the officials didn’t call THIS hypothetical unsportsmanlike conduct… then I accuse the NCAA of LOI and then it really has become collegiate fake wrestling. 

I know this has already been stated ad nauseum on this thread… but if the shoe WERE on the other foot… and Day did this exact same thing resulting in a one point win against a top 5 opponent at home or on the road , we’d build Day a damn statue for his stroke of genius outside The Shoe!!  Or we’d make the argument that he bent a rule within the parameters of fair play. Or we’d turn a blind eye to the entire incident. And we all know it. 

Is defensive holding described as unsportsmanlike in the rule book?  I don’t know. I haven’t memorized the rule book. However, I’d argue defensive PI and defensive holding are in essence exactly the same with regards to intent. So defensive holding is then unsportsmanlike per your argument and basically suggests a defender should be disqualified after 2 PI’s or D holding calls. Again, unsportsmanlike conduct is extremely broad, subjective, and totally open to interpretation. Some are way more clear cut than others. I call what Lanning did “gamesmanship,” not unsportsmanlike. Both are subjective. If you want to call what Lanning did unsportsmanlike, great… write the rule or at least enforce it. 

Except they call it pass interference and not unsportsmanlike conduct. So it’s not unsportsmanlike by definition. Oftentimes it’s a mistaken attempt at hard play. This is too much of a stretch. There’s too much arguing with scarlet colored glasses on this topic and also crying about spilt milk. They won. We lost. Lanning out coached Day. Day was out coached in another big game. That’s it.  

Is committing pass interference on purpose to prevent a touchdown unsportsmanlike conduct?  That’s intentionally breaking a rule… Where is the line drawn with intentionally breaking rules and calling it unsportsmanlike conduct?

Two things… sarcasm wasn’t missed; however, it was used as an argument so I felt obligated to respond with my opinion to the posted sarcastic hypothetical. Secondly, football is over 150 years old. You think players have never been targeted and/or taken out on purpose by opposing teams?  C’mon… the rules in football are designed to make the game safer than ever even though we still see unfortunate and gruesome injuries on a regular basis. And unsavory acts on the field by players and coaches will always be an unfortunate part of the game. However, it’s  quite a jump going from taking a penalty on purpose to manipulate the clock to taking out an opponent on purpose to create an advantage. 

And they could end up making college football two hand touch. We can “could happen” all day long. Coming to your assumption is a bit of a stretch in my opinion. But hey, that’s why we’re here… to offer differing opinions… If that’s still allowed. 

You’re comparing apples and oranges. NOBODY is arguing about being a NO Saint and putting a bounty on somebody’s head…

What’s unsportsmanlike about it? That he knowingly sent a 12th man onto the field to benefit his team and the clock?  What’s the old saying, “Don’t blame the player, blame the game” or something like that?  I go back to taking other penalties on purpose to benefit your own team. To call it unsportsmanlike is subjective as hell. You call it unsportsmanlike. I call it genius… and unfortunate. We can agree to disagree and that’s fine!  Fix the damn rule, yes. But until it’s fixed, well played Lanning. Tip of the cap. 

I think there’s a world of difference between being a 2 year old and untying an opponent’s shoelace and exploiting a loophole in the rule book that helps your team win. It’s not like he sent a 12th guy out there to chop block JJ Smith or something. Honor has nothing to do with Lanning outsmarting our coaches and quite possibly the refs. Hell… he did it all game long. 

If they cheated then they should be forced to vacate the win. I don’t see that happening. I don’t like the result any more than anybody else. It’s a game. He gamed the system?  Fine. We’ve all seen far more egregious examples of gaming the system. Had Ryan Day done it, I guarantee we’d be singing his praises. We can’t have it both ways. We’re not tcun. 

How is it cheating?  Is taking a 5 yard delay of game penalty to back up the punter cheating?  Is committing a pass interference to prevent a TD cheating?  He exploited a loophole and it worked to his advantage. Bum juice. 

This ^^. Except Ohio State would never do this. Not under Ryan Day. He’s too vanilla to think outside the box but within the rules. 

Oregon’s publicity folks wrote a helluva letter on Holden’s behalf there. Talk about cookie cutter apology. 

Exactly my point. We’re Ohio State. Let’s go out and find a fricking kicker who is nails from 50 or closer…and let him shine!!  It is downright derelict that we don’t have a Nugent year in, year out. 3 points matter… a lot. I don’t know if that falls on recruiting, coaching, or all of the above. We should have been able to set up for a 45 yard kick and nail it with our eyes closed. It’s 2024 for God’s sakes. We’re a football behemoth. Find a kicker who we trust or find a coach who trusts our kicker. 

FWIW, in the gimme games… we almost always  go for it on 4th down and never attempt FG’s, thereby taking away opportunities for our PK to get some real game experience. It continues to bite us in the ass. against Georgia in the CFP and, I believe, on Saturday because Ryan, Chip, or whoever did not have enough faith in our kicker to deliver from a greater distance on a big time stage. Give the kickers more real game experience so they can develop their confidence and long distance abilities. We need them in these close games! 

No but they have this circus clown #44 who will score 1-2 times on gimmick plays and eat up a chunk of yardage for 4 quarters while Fleming all of a sudden remembers how to be a 5 star WR. I ain’t saying we’re gonna lose… but weird shit happens at State Penn… just like weird shit happened at Autzen.