BYU Hail Mary Attempt Overturned, Ruled Catch Short of End Zone

It was a wild ending between BYU and Arizona State. BYU's comeback attempt appeared to come to an end when a Jake Retzlaff interception gave Arizona State the football deep in BYU territory. All ASU needed to do was drain the clock or score and the game would have been over. A series of questionable decisions by ASU head coach Kenny Dillingham, however, gave BYU the ball back at midfield with one second remaining. Arizona State fans stormed the field without realizing the game was not over. After more than 10 minutes of delay and trailing 28-23, BYU had one chance for a game-winning Hail Mary.

BYU quarterback Jake Retzlaff threw a rainbow near the goal line that was caught by BYU wide receiver Chase Roberts. However, Roberts was tackled two yards short of the end zone and the game ended.

The ball was clearly caught by Roberts. At the time of the catch, however, it appeared the sideline referee motioned that the pass was incomplete. Arizona State fans were already on the field at that point, so the wild scene resulted in statisticians ruling the pass as an incompletion.

That ruling has now been overturned. Instead of motioning that the pass was incomplete, the referee was motioning that Roberts was short of the end zone and the game was over. So the stats from the BYU-ASU game have been updated. The game officially ended on a 49-yard reception from Chase Roberts.

In his weekly press conference on Monday, BYU head coach Kalani Sitake said the Big 12 was investigating the entire ending of the BYU-ASU game, including the Chase Roberts catch.

"The Big 12 is looking into [the leaked audio]," Sitake said. "They're reviewing everything that happened in the game from on the field when the game happened to the penalties, to the completion or incompletion with Chase Roberts, all those things. They're handling all that and even the recording. They're looking into all of that stuff. They'll deal with it. I trust the Big 12 leadership and [I'll] just let them handle that."

As a result of the investigation, ASU was fined $25,000 by the Big 12 and the Chase Roberts catch was officially changed to a catch in the stat books.

The completion was a significant one for BYU quarterback Jake Retzlaff. It gave him 346 passing yards, a career high against FBS competition. Retzlaff's final stat line from the ASU game was 23/38 for 346 yards, 1 touchdown, and 2 interceptions.

Oddly enough, this is not the first time this season a Chase Roberts reception has been changed after the game was over. Against Baylor, Jake Retzlaff had a touchdown pass to Chase Roberts that was ruled a lateral. After further review between BYU and Baylor, the play was ruled a touchdown pass for Retzlaff instead of a touchdown run for Roberts.

There is a reasonable chance that BYU and ASU could rematch in the Big 12 title game. In fact, it's the second most likely outcome. Given the drama in this game, a rematch would probably be the most entertaining scenario.