[BostonCard]

On the pylon play, the rule seems clear and when ABC finally brought in their rules expert he was very explicit that the pylon is out of bounds and the play was dead as soon the Oregon receiver kicked the pylon, at which point the ball very clearly had not broken the plain.  It was just the stupid announcers who were inexplicably unfamiliar with the rule (and, more critically, acted like they knew the rule but were wrong about it).

This is one of those things that utterly baffles me, I knew that rule just from watching previous games and having it come up. I never played, I've never read the rulebook, I've never gone through any kind of training about the game, and I'm certainly not paid millions of dollars to talk about the game. Why on earth don't these guys know these rules? That rule wasn't that obscure. It's their job, it's inexcusable that they don't know this stuff.

My guess is that they were confused because when the ball touches the pylon it is a touchdown, but that's because the pylon is on the other side of the plane, so if the ball touches the pylon it by definition had to cross the plane.

But the player's foot is not the ball.

BC

[BostonCard]

On the pylon play, the rule seems clear and when ABC finally brought in their rules expert he was very explicit that the pylon is out of bounds and the play was dead as soon the Oregon receiver kicked the pylon, at which point the ball very clearly had not broken the plain.  It was just the stupid announcers who were inexplicably unfamiliar with the rule (and, more critically, acted like they knew the rule but were wrong about it).

This is one of those things that utterly baffles me, I knew that rule just from watching previous games and having it come up. I never played, I've never read the rulebook, I've never gone through any kind of training about the game, and I'm certainly not paid millions of dollars to talk about the game. Why on earth don't these guys know these rules? That rule wasn't that obscure. It's their job, it's inexcusable that they don't know this stuff.

My guess is that they were confused because when the ball touches the pylon it is a touchdown, but that's because the pylon is on the other side of the plane, so if the ball touches the pylon it by definition had to cross the plane.

But the player's foot is not the ball.

BC