We’ll see how much a clock-related mistake by the officials affects the 2016 College Football Playoff National Championship Game.
You can see the sequence for yourself if you missed it live or wanted another look:
Here is the clock mistake.
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— The Comeback NCAA (@TheComebackNCAA) January 12, 2016
A completion with 12 seconds left is followed by a chaotic few seconds in which you can see that the officials were clearly not in position to oversee the next play. You can also see the official at the bottom of the screen, properly waving arms above his head to signal that the game clock should be stopped. The clock ever so briefly froze, but there was no sustained halt to the clock’s progress. It ticked from 12 seconds down to six. Had the sequence been properly administered by officials, and properly handled by a clock operator who bears an even greater share of the blame for all this, Clemson would have had at least 10 seconds, possibly 11, following a spiked ball.
Instead, Clemson got nine seconds after three were put back on the clock. The Tigers were deprived of two seconds, maybe three. Moreover, Dabo Swinney watched game administrators fail to do their jobs properly. This could have altered Swinney’s thought process in a way events never should. A game this big shouldn’t have to be marked by such a controversy.
Clemson lost two seconds, possibly even three. Insignificant? Not in the short term, and not in a larger context, either.
First of all, Swinney — possibly not knowing that three seconds were put back on the clock — ordered his placekicker onto the field for a field goal try from 44 yards. With nine seconds, Clemson certainly had time for one more play. It’s possible Swinney knew he had nine seconds but went ahead with the decision to kick since his team had no timeouts and didn’t want to risk a sack, thereby robbing the Tigers of a chance to kick a field goal. This will be a point of interest in the postgame press conference.
The larger point of significance is that with 10 or (especially) 11 seconds, Swinney might have been fully convinced that he could have run another scrimmage play, in which case Clemson would have had a chance to kick a field goal shorter than 44 yards. (The Tigers might have even gone for the end zone on one long pass.)
If Alabama wins by three points or fewer, hoooooooo, boy…
We’ll just have to wait and see.
