Penn State Football: SEC Admits to Officiating Error on Intentional Grounding Call

The Southeastern Conference released a statement on Saturday night following Penn State’s 28-20 victory over Auburn admitting the SEC officiating crew had mistakenly taken a down from the Nittany Lions following an intentional grounding call on Penn State quarterback Sean Clifford.

Intentional grounding results by rule in a loss of downs.

The conference’s statement reads as follows:

“At 11:45 in the second quarter, Penn State throws an incomplete pass that was judged to be Intentional Grounding.  The crew’s enforcement of the penalty erroneously set the down to third down; the correct down should have been second down. The replay booth was consulted to confirm the down prior to the punt. The replay booth had the down as fourth down as well.

“The error was discovered during the media timeout that followed the punt and by rule it could not be corrected at that time.”

The ruling was one of a handful over the course of the game that drew the ire of fans and Penn State coach James Franklin. Asked following the game about the lost down, Franklin largely avoided any fine-triggering statements or condemnations of the officiating crew.

“I talked to all of them,” Franklin said. “They all agreed on the call and so did the replay. They all agreed. And I kept bringing them over and saying it’s not accurate. I don’t know what else I can tell you, but they all concurred with the officials. They got the headset, they talked to each other, they all agreed. They ran it by replay, they agreed as well. I don’t know what else I can do or what else I can say.”

Generally speaking Penn State fans took objection to a handful of calls throughout the game including the grounding call the preceded the botched down situation, a non-call on a potential Auburn intentional grounding and the spot on a failed Nittany Lion fourth-down attempt.

That said the entire game saw just 11 penalties between the two teams, with the Nittany Lions on the positive end of a second-down defensive pass interference call that would give Penn State a first down after being backed up inside the shadow of their own goal.