I have no idea why you would assume that. Rules are different at all levels of the game, and the NCAA book is freely available online.
3-2-3-1
ARTICLE 3. a. A period shall be extended for an untimed down if one or more of the following occurs during a down in which time expires (A.R. 3-2-3-I-VIII):
A penalty is accepted for a live-ball foul(s) (Exception: Rule 10-2-5-a). The period is not extended if the foul is by the team in possession and the statement of the penalty includes loss of down (A.R. 3-2-3-VIII).
Word. You forgot to mention the grade inflation and ease of graduation if you were at Stanford versus the insane meritocracy that ruled in the UC system.
Miami beat Duke a few years back on a similar last second play that did not get as much publicity. And the refs missed some calls . they had 8 laterals
It’s not the greatest play in college football history. It’s the greatest play in ANY sport’s history, and I say that as a guy who
Isn’t really much of a football fan,
Has no interest in college football at all, and
Once watched his favorite team in any sport win a World Series on a walk-off home run.
I do not know how you can possibly top the total, wonderful, hilarious absurdity of this play. If you had written this into a movie people would literally have said “That is the stupidest thing ever and it would never happen for real in a billion years.”
I’ve probably seen The Play a thousand times, and so has everyone, I guess; the repetition of it has almost taken away the wonder. But if you haven’t seen it in awhile look it up because a few years of not seeing it bring back that wonder. It’s just a one in a trillion thing, and so hilariously funny. I mean, it’s already utterly magnificent, with four or five laterals, when, as the camera is panning to the viewer’s right, the guy yells “Oh, and the band is out on the field!” and you think “The who?” and sure enough, there they are, and I think there’s some kind of a mascot who has a red and white striped shirt on and looks like Waldo, and they’re honking and banging away but then they start scattering in a panic like squirrels, and there’s like a hundred of them, and the announcer is at this point screaming like the Allies are invading Normandy and he’s announcing it live while leaping from a C-47 with the 101st Airborne, and then of course the guy spikes the trombone player.
I mean, it’s just… I still can’t believe this really happened in real life and it’s not a fever dream. I am an atheist but this existence of this play really challenges that, because it’s evidence God is real and wants to reveal His existence through the most preposterous miracles.