The "12th Player" Rule: How Oregon's Tactic Sparked NCAA Change
The Oregon Ducks' football game against Ohio State brought to light a loophole in the NCAA rulebook, leading to a significant change in how penalties for having too many players on the field are handled in the closing moments of a game. This article delves into the situation, the NCAA's response, and the implications for college football.
The Incident: Oregon vs. Ohio State
During an October matchup, Oregon faced Ohio State in a game that came down to the wire. With just seconds remaining, Oregon was flagged for having 12 players on the field. The strategic implications of this penalty call generated widespread attention.
With Ohio State driving on its final possession and precious seconds ticking away, Oregon was penalized for having too many defenders on the field. While the Buckeyes gained 5 yards, the move took four seconds off the clock. The Ducks ultimately won 32-31.
Just before the ball was snapped, Oregon defensive back Dontae Manning walked onto the field, giving the Ducks an extra defender. Ohio State failed to complete a pass against Oregon’s 12-man defense on the next play, and the Ducks were flagged for an illegal substitution penalty. Ohio State gained 5 yards on the penalty but lost four seconds off the clock since the penalty was deemed a live-ball foul. The Buckeyes were left with six seconds on the clock, and quarterback Will Howard scrambled up the middle, sliding a second too late for Ohio State to call a timeout for a potential game-winning field goal at the Oregon 26.
The Loophole and Lanning's Admission
The existing rule allowed Oregon to strategically commit the penalty, accepting a 5-yard loss while also running valuable time off the clock. Oregon coach Dan Lanning seemed to indicate that the Ducks took advantage of the loophole during his Monday news conference ahead.
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"We spend an inordinate amount of time on situations and some situations don’t come up very often in college football, but this was obviously something we had worked on," Lanning said. "You can see the result."
The NCAA's Response: A New Interpretation
The NCAA quickly recognized the potential for abuse and issued a new rules interpretation to address the loophole. The NCAA is closing the loophole used by Oregon to shave time off the game clock at the end of Saturday's win over Ohio State.
In a release, the NCAA issued a new rules interpretation on how to handle a penalty for 12 players on the field in the final two minutes of either half. If the defense has 12 players actively participate in the down, the offense can choose, along with the 5-yard penalty, to have the game clock reset to the time that had been displayed at the snap.
"After the Two-Minute Timeout in either half, if the defense commits a substitution foul and 12 or more players are on the field and participate in a down, officials will penalize the defense for the foul and at the option of the offended team, reset the game clock back to the time displayed at the snap," the guidance said. "The game clock will then restart on the next snap," it continued.
No time change would be made if there were 12 players but one of them was attempting to leave the field and did not affect the play. Only a 5-yard penalty would be issued. For the clock to be reset, 12 or more players must be participants on a down.
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Steve Shaw, NCAA coordinator of football officials, said in a statement that a "guiding principle of the NCAA Football Rules Committee is that there should be no benefit when a team commits a penalty." "The goal of this in-season interpretation is to eliminate a potential clock advantage for committing a substitution foul and take away any gain for the defense if they violate the substitution rule," he said.
The New Rule in Detail
Going forward, the clock will be reset if a team tries to replicate what Oregon did inside the last two minutes of each half.
The new rule interpretation stipulates that if a team is found to have 12 or more players on the field within the final two minutes of either half, the offended team will have the option to reset the game clock to the time of the snap, in addition to the standard 5-yard penalty. However, if the 12th player is attempting to leave the field and does not influence the play, the clock will not be reset, and only the 5-yard penalty will be enforced.
Broader Rule Changes for 2025
The "12th player" rule change wasn't the only adjustment coming to college football. New rule changes coming to college football in 2025 include a timeout penalty to stop players from faking injuries, a single timeout for the third overtime and beyond, a codified closing of the 12-men-on-the-field loophole that gained widespread attention during Oregon’s October win over Ohio State, a change to approved kick return signals and a language adjustment to how replay reviews are announced.
The changes were proposed by the football rules committee in February and approved by the NCAA’s Playing Rules Oversight Panel this week.
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Injury Timeout Rule
The new injury timeout rule will cost a team one of its three timeouts per half if a player goes down due to injury after the ball is spotted for the next play and medical personnel enter the field. If a team is out of timeouts, it will incur a 5-yard penalty for delay of game. Faked injuries have become a popular tactic to slow down an offense’s momentum and tempo, and the practice got so much attention that SEC commissioner Greg Sankey sent a letter to member schools last fall about the issue.
“We looked at a lot of video on these and saw many are occurring not at the end of the play, but after the play,” NCAA coordinator of officials Steve Shaw said in February. “So we think this will hit and take the incentive for a player to feign an injury after a play is over. We’ll monitor and see how it goes.”
Shaw said the rule would not apply to players who were limping or struggling to get to the next play before going down. It’s meant to be applied to players who quickly drop to the field in an egregious act.
It’s a less dramatic change than the proposal brought by the American Football Coaches Association, which asked that any player who went down for injury be required to sit out the rest of the drive.
Overtime Timeout Allotment
The change to timeout allotment during overtime comes after several games last season went to five or more extra frames.
Kick Return Signals
The “T” arm signal on kick returns will now lead to a dead ball call. This came up in this winter’s Citrus Bowl when South Carolina ran a kick return trick play against Illinois after a Gamecocks player made the “T” signal, an informal signal often used by returners to notify his teammates to let the kickoff go through the end zone.
Replay Review Announcements
Officials’ announcements of rulings that have been upheld on replay review will no longer differentiate between calls that are “confirmed” or “stand,” hinting at how confident the officials were in the original call.
Unchanged Areas
There were no new rules proposals around targeting, coach challenges or substitutions, but all those areas will get more attention from the rules committee over the next year.
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