Replay official makes critical error that leads to Kansas State TD

Published Sep. 6, 2014 2:15 p.m. ET

foxsports

Stop the insanity.

I may have borrowed the line, but it certainly was apropos late in the second quarter of the Kansas State-Iowa State game on FOX Sports 1.

The insanity was the replay official not stopping the game to review a critical play the led to a Kansas State touchdown.

Here was the situation:

Kansas State had the ball, first-and-10 at the Iowa State 16-yard line with 38 seconds to go until halftime. Iowa State led 28-13.

Quarterback Jake Waters threw a pass towards the end zone to Tyler Lockett, which was ruled complete at the 1-yard line. However, Lockett caught the ball as his knee hit the pylon.

The rule is simple: If the receiver is touching the pylon when he first possesses the ball, the pass is incomplete. A player touching the pylon puts himself out of bounds. It’s a different rule than the NFL, because in the NFL, if a player touches the pylon he’s not out of bounds. But in the college game he is.

This was definitely a close play, and I’m not sure if they would have overturned it in replay, though I think the pass is incomplete, but you have to stop it for a review. This was a potential scoring play.

I understand Kansas State is going to hurry to try and snap the ball quickly, but the replay official, with his communicator upstairs, has to know that and has to get it stopped. If you’re a replay official you have to stop this the second you saw the play live. There’s no way he should have allowed another play to be run.

The second part of it: If you are going to call it a catch, is it a touchdown? Where is the ball in relationship to the plane of the goal?

Two critical decisions in replay that had to be made and weren’t.

Kansas State did score on the next play, cutting Iowa State’s lead to eight.

Obviously, the Big 12 will look at this and agree that play should have been stopped. Maybe they don’t agree that it should have been overturned, but it was far too close not to stop it.