At 1:17 of the fourth quarter Boise State was faced with a third-and-three at the Colorado State 29-yard line. The result of the play was the officials on the field ruled the runner down short of the line to gain. Subsequently, instant replay stopped the game to review the spot of the ball. At that point, 38 seconds remained on the game clock and four seconds on the play clock. Upon review of the available video evidence, replay allowed the ruling on the field to stand. The on-field officials reset the game clock to the time at which they had been paged at 45 seconds. In accordance with NCAA Playing Rule 3-4-c-11, the officials also reset the play clock to 25 seconds.

The game clock and play clock both started on the referee’s signal. Boise State let the clocks run down to 19 seconds on the game clock and one second on the play clock before taking a charged team timeout. The officials reset the game clock to 21 seconds and, in accordance with NCAA Playing Rule 3-4-c-2 reset the play clock to 25 seconds. On fourth down, Boise State failed to pick up the first down and Colorado State took over on downs at its own 27-yard line with 15 seconds remaining on the game clock.

During the first-down play, Colorado State attempted a series of passes. The officials originally ruled a forward fumble out-of-bounds and spotted the ball at the point of the fumble on the Colorado State 40-yard line. By rule, the clock started as soon as the ball was placed on the ground and the final four seconds ran off the game clock. Subsequently, the officials corrected the spot to Colorado State’s 45-yard line, ruling there had been a backward pass and not a forward fumble out-of-bounds, and reset the game clock to four seconds. Replay then stopped the game for review and determined there were in fact two illegal forward passes within the final sequence, as listed below, the second of which caused the game clock to stop.

–      The first was a legal forward pass from No. 7 to No. 4

–      The second was a legal backward pass from No. 4 to No. 89

–      The third was an illegal forward pass from No. 89 to No. 1

–      The fourth was a legal backward pass from No. 1 to No. 7

–      The fifth was an illegal forward pass out-of-bounds by No. 7

In accordance with NCAA Playing Rule 3-4-4-a, the second illegal pass resulted in a 10-second runoff and thus ended the game.

The Conference office has determined these plays were correctly administered.