Yahoo Finance Pac-12 defends ruling on controversial spot in Oregon State's loss to Washington
The Pac-12 isn’t admitting its officials made a mistake on a crucial spot in Oregon State’s loss to Washington on Saturday night.
Oregon State RB Jermar Jefferson appeared to get a first down on a fourth-down run in the fourth quarter of a 27-21 loss to the Huskies. But Pac-12 officials assigned to the game said he was short of the marker.
Here’s how Jefferson’s run looked on television. He needed to get to the 4-yard line.
The #Pac12Refs strike again, as they give Oregon St an all-time bad spot on a 4th & inches from the 5 yard-line, resulting in a turnover on downs. #OSUvsUW pic.twitter.com/xLZExDkhDg
— Bad Sports Refs (@BadSportsRefs) November 15, 2020
The Pac-12 said Sunday night that there was no irrefutable video evidence to overturn the call that said Washington should get the ball on downs.
“On the second play of the fourth quarter on fourth-and-1 inside the Washington 5-yard line, the Oregon State ball carrier was ruled short of the first down line based on the spotting of the ball,” the conference said. “The ball was ruled over to Washington based on downs. Instant replay, after reviewing all available camera angles, determined that three was not irrefutable video evidence to change the ruling on the field.”
Oregon State could have taken a 28-24 lead on the drive with a TD.
Instead, the Beavers are now 0-2 after losing to Washington State in the first week of the Pac-12’s season. Saturday night was Washington’s first game after the Huskies’ first game of the year was canceled because of COVID-19 quarantines at Cal.
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Nick Bromberg is a writer for Yahoo Sports.
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