Wisconsin Badgers fall to Arizona State on bizarre final play

[JonLP24]

TEMPE, Ariz. -- Wisconsin quarterback Joel Stave's stumble led to one of college football's strangest finishes.

Trailing Arizona State 32-30, Stave executed the two-minute drill to near perfection, moving his team from its 17-yard line to the ASU 13 in the final minute to put the Badgers in position to kick the winning field goal.

Except when he tried to take a knee in between the hashmarks, Stave stumbled after being clipped by one of his linemen and plopped the ball on the Sun Devils 15, causing confusion on both sides of the ball.

With the clock still running, the Arizona State sideline erupted, screaming, "Fumble, fumble." Stave checked with the referee to make sure the play was dead, but Arizona State's players piled on the ball.

http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/9676982/wisconsin-badgers-fall-arizona-state-sun-devils-bizarre-final-play

[joeybee12]

1. Didn't see it...and it still confuses me as to what actually happened...nt

[JonLP24]

2. Wisconsin QB

kneels down, then bumps into lineman, places the ball down.

ASU thinks fumble dives onto the ball, clock is still running.

Wisconsin is trying to figure out what is going on while the clock is still running, once they realize the clock is still running they try to get a play off but by then it was way too late.

[joeybee12]

3. You'd think they could have re-set the clock...

Since it wasn't a fumble and the ASU players impeded the next play.

[JonLP24]

5. Many are making that same argument

Concluding it was an error by the official staff, either way--ASU was very lucky.

[caraher]

7. They were

I feel bad for Stave, but he needs to focus on his job, which is lining up and spiking the ball. Had they ruled it a fumble and ASU recovery the clock would have stopped anyway; better to assume it's still your ball and line up (both because the clock should be running, as it was, and because snapping the ball would have pre-empted any review that would have given ASU the ball on a (bad) ruling that it was a fumble).

Tough break, but bad clock management seems to be a chronic problem for the Badgers in recent years.

[Auggie]

4. Huge error by Stave

[Condem]

6. Yep.

Should have handed the ball to the ref.

[joeybee12]

8. Pac-12 reprimands officials

http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/9681505/pac-12-conference-reprimands-officials-arizona-state-wisconsin-game