re: What's the worst call in college football history?

Not even a difficult call...

Sharpe has his hands all over Gamble before they even get into the end zone.

That wasn't the play that decided the game, though...

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This is easily the worst:

Auburn @ Vandy 2001

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Started scrolling this thread to find this.

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I remember a Florida vs Florida State game a long time ago where FSU got every call for every fumble, non fumble, and close play for the entire game.

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I remember this game as well, it was in the swamp and rix was qb for fsu. As a whole, it was probably the worst officiated college football game I’ve ever seen.

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They finally had replay review too and STILL got it wrong

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Same with the Patrick Peterson INT. I think I remember hearing that they didn’t have HD in the replay booth which is crazy since everyone at home was watching in HD at that point.

It is the fifth down plays because there are 7 and 8 officials on the field ALL keeping track of the downs....

that shite should never happen

it damned sure isn't judgement calls made by 1 or 2 officials.


940: Dartmouth vs. Cornell

It’s hard to believe that once upon a time Ivy League football games actually mattered, but this game was a notable example not only of an important Ivy League game, but also an excellent example of sportsmanship on the part of the team that was given a “fifth down.” Dartmouth led 3-0 late in this game, though Cornell had come into the game with 18 straight victories. As a result of a mistaken extra down at the end of the game, Cornell scored the apparent game-winning touchdown, winning 7-3. However, the error of having an extra down was discovered after the game was over, and in a gesture of remarkable sportsmanship Cornell forfeited the game, giving the victory to Dartmouth, which is officially recorded as having won the game 3-0 [1]. There’s a triumph of good sportsmanship over bad officiating.

1941: Ohio State vs. Wisconsin

In this game, played less than a month before Pearl Harbor, Ohio State and Wisconsin combined for 80 points, the highest combined score in the history of their lengthy series. 7 of those points, however, came for Wisconsin in a “fifth down” play that should not have counted. Unlike the previous fifth down play, this one ended up not being decisive in the scoring margin, and Ohio State ended up winning 46-34 despite Wisconsin’s fifth-down and goal conversion for a touchdown. Ironically enough, this error was made by the hometown officiating crew at Ohio State, which is a terrible sort of blunder to make against your home team [2]. Someone probably got fired for that mistake. Ohio State did end up 6-1-1 that year, so they had a good team anyway, good enough to overcome that massive blunder.

1972: Miami vs. Tulane

This particular example of the “fifth” down is a very obscure one, being the only college game of its type not to be given its own wikipedia listing, ironically enough. Like the example above with Cornell and Darmouth and below with Colorado and Missouri, the gaffe allowed the wrong team to win, giving Miami a 24-21 victory [3]. It is somewhat obscure why this particular fifth down play should be so obscure given the rarity of the error. Given the fact that the University of Miami is prominent one, one would think that such an error would be well known among fans of college football.

1990: Colorado vs. Missouri

This game was, until today, the most recent example of an infamous fifth down play. Unlike the good sportsmanship shown by Cornell against Dartmouth or the lack of decisiveness in the error as was the case with Ohio State and Wisconsin, this particular error was recognized but without the honorable action taken by the recipient of the error, whose victory was due to the “fifth down” play in question. However, in this particular case both teams ended up being somewhat victimized by the officiating blunder, which no one noticed during the game–not Colorado, not the officials, and not Missouri, any of whom, had they noticed, would probably have acted differently. Though Colorado ended up winning the game 33-31 as a result of the error, their victory in such a fashion caused their co-national championship season (with Georgia Tech as the other co-national champion) to be viewed as lacking legitimacy [4]. Both teams ended up losing as a result of the mistaken call.

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Patrick Peterson Interception no call comes to mind

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/thread. They even talked about it on the nfl shows the next day

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Auburn @ Vandy 2001

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+1