Incredible, improbable, unreal, insane. Whatever adjectives you use to describe it, Arizona State's victory in the last 18 seconds Saturday night against Wisconsin is something that never has and probably never will be seen again in a college football game. Check out some of the tweets that came across in the reaction to the end of the game.
ASU wins! Clock ran down. Wisconsin thought clock had stopped!
— House of Sparky (@HouseOfSparky) September 15, 2013
It's all over, the referees ran off the field after this without giving much of an explanation, ASU wins 32-30.
Great team win!! #GoDevils 2-0
— CBE (@CarlBradford52) September 15, 2013
Here's the facts: Stave took a knee and whistle blew with 15 seconds left. Anything after that is incompetence by the officials. #Badgers
— Tom Oates (@TomOatesWSJ) September 15, 2013
Fine, you know what? He kneeled the ball. However he should have given the ball to the referee right then and there. Instead he placed the ball himself which understandably flustered the officials.
Stave’s knee never hit the ground… he just placed it there. It’s a fumble.
— Bryan Fischer (@BryanDFischer) September 15, 2013
This is the other side of the argument. Arizona State fell on the ball but the play was already blown dead so it technically should have been a delay of game penalty.
Raise your hand if you had this one ending with a botched downing the ball/possible fumble/time running out play.
— Doug Haller (@DougHaller) September 15, 2013
*Keeps hand down* with everyone else in the entire country.
Unbelievable.
— Badger Football (@BadgerFootball) September 15, 2013
The official Wisconsin football twitter account is speechless.
You need to watch the final seconds of the Wisconsin-Arizona State game. http://t.co/r07EzMuLRY Wow.
— Buster Olney (@Buster_ESPN) September 15, 2013
Even ESPN baseball insider Buster Olney switched sports momentarily.
I've watched the end of Wisconsin-Arizona State and remain confused. Also, dumb Wisky. Dumb refs. http://t.co/wV6OcU48mw via @thebiglead
— Jason McIntyre (@jasonrmcintyre) September 15, 2013
McIntyre echoes most people here. Still confused and believe fault lies equally with referees and the Badgers
Players pointing to clock, Ref giving stiff arm to them. Doesn't make sense pic.twitter.com/aN4uId8gTC
— Mike Hall (@BTNMikeHall) September 15, 2013
Just chaos, no way to explain it for the time being at least.
What a bizarre ending to a GREAT game between Wisconsin and Arizona State. Refs blew it but will they be held accountable?
— Desmond Howard (@DesmondHoward) September 15, 2013
How can anyone believe that was a fumble or that the officials thought it was a fumble? Sweet geezus. #Badgers
— Jeff Potrykus (@jaypo1961) September 15, 2013
Potrykus is the Wisconsin beat reporter for the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinal.
From replay, looks like Stave downed the ball. So that rules out the fumble. Badgers wait for officials to do something. Officials never did
— Doug Haller (@DougHaller) September 15, 2013
Your Arizona Republic beat writer chiming in. Sure Stave downed it but then put the ball down himself instead of giving it to a referee to spot, that is where things went wrong.
As I said on-air, I'm shocked the officials took so long to spot the ball. Should've been delay of game on ASU but officials seem confused.
— Dave Pasch (@DavePasch) September 15, 2013
About ASU last night, Wisconsin should have had another play. QB's knee was down. ASU laid on the ball - timeout should have been called.
— Mike Pereira (@MikePereira) September 15, 2013
Mike Pereira's opinion carries a lot of weight, only problem is Wisconsin didn't have time out and their was nothing to review on the play.
To be clear the officials spotted the ball-whistle blew-QB was called down on the field. The issue was w/ ASU laying on the ball!!
— Kirk Herbstreit (@KirkHerbstreit) September 15, 2013
No statement re: Pac-12 officiating planned for today (ASU-UW). Normal review process. Plays and officiating calls reviewed Monday.
— Joe Schad (@schadjoe) September 15, 2013
It will certainly be interesting to see what comes out of this.
Editor's Note: Larry Scott has spoken and it isn't pretty for the officials who lacked any sense of urgency at the end of Saturday night's game. The Pac-12 released the following statement.
Walnut Creek, Calif. -- Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott has reprimanded and taken additional sanctions against officials in Saturday night's Wisconsin at Arizona State game for failing to properly administer the end of game situation and act with appropriate urgency on the game's final play, it was announced today.
With 18 seconds remaining in the game, Wisconsin's quarterback ran the ball toward the center of the field, touched his knee to the ground and then placed the ball on the ground. There was initial uncertainty over whether the quarterback had taken a knee, given himself up or fumbled the ball. As a result several Arizona State players considered the ball live and a fumble, and attempted to recover the ball.
Neither the referee nor anyone on his crew moved with appropriate urgency to clearly communicate that the ball was to be spotted so play could resume promptly.
"This was an unusual situation to end the game," said Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott. "After a thorough review, we have determined that the officials fell short of the high standard in which Pac-12 games should be managed. We will continue to work with all our officials to ensure this type of situation never occurs again."