A Conspiracy Theory

The College Football Playoff Committee and the Atlantic Coast Conference needed Clemson to beat North Carolina in the ACC Championship game. If Clemson won, there would be no tough decisions to me for the CFP, all of the dominos would fall into like they were supposed to, and all of the powers in college football would be happy and the power structure in college football would be preserved.

I fully believed going into the game that it would be an official's call that would help decide the game. I did believe that it would be an interference call or some other call that may have some debatable merit that would be the deciding factor. I had no idea that one of the simplest calls an official could make could have cost North Carolina the opportunity to tie the game.

An offsides call is pretty cut and dried. The defense either crosses the line of scrimmage before the ball is snapped or a gunner on the kickoff team crosses the line of scrimmage before the ball is kicked.

North Carolina was behind Clemson 45-37 with a little over a minute to go. North Carolina lines up for the onside kick and any time you are trying an onsides kick, there is a little bit of luck involved if the kicking team is going to recover it. The ball was kicked, bounced off a Clemson player, and North Carolina recovered and here was the ultimate opportunity they had been playing for. A chance to tie the game and send it into over time. North Carolina may or may not have pulled that off but they would have had the opportunity to try and pull it off.

Out comes a yellow flag. "Offsides, #30 kicking team" is the call. The announcers, namely Kirk Herbstreit, all disagreed with the call. They showed the replay from every conceivable angle, they had it on the telestrator, lines were drawn, illustrations were made, and evidently that call is not reviewable. Those officials were not about to admit they had made a mistake on one of the most basic calls in football. I would be willing to bet the ACC will not review it either.

The sports website wralsportsfan.com said this about the end of the game "In a season filled with mind-numbing conference officiating moments, it's only appropriate the ACC Championship game ended with an egregiously bad call." I couldn't agree more.