Big East says ending of Mich St-Notre Dame was OK

Published Sep. 19, 2010 9:38 p.m. ET

foxsports

The Big East says officials handled Michigan State's winning fake field goal against Notre Dame correctly Saturday night.

The Spartans beat the Irish 34-31 in overtime, but it wasn't clear whether they got the final play off in time or if a delay of game penalty should have been called.

The Big East said Sunday the back judge is supposed to focus on the play clock. When it hits zero, he is then supposed to check on the ball before calling delay of game.

The league says there will always be some lag time, and that on the fake field goal, ''this lag time created the situation where it appears the play clock expired just before the snap.''

The league says it believes ''the snap occurred well within the normal lag time.''