Story been getting a bit of play this week from the Illinois high-school playoffs.
Plainfield North, a judge ruled today, WILL be playing in the next round, having won their game 18-17 over Fenwick High.
The problem was the last timed play of regulation, Fenwick with 4th down and four seconds left on it's own 15, up 10-7. Fenwick's quarterback decides not to even chance a return (or dinking around with a safety), taking the ball and heaving it as far as he can, no regard for any receivers in the time zone.
OK, intentional grounding.
The problem (not unlike a college game this year) is that Plainfield was awarded an untimed down -- incorrectly. (Fenwick was on offense, so the game ends on that play.) Plainfield kicked a field goal on the untimed down, and went for two as they traded touchdowns in the abbreviated-field overtime, winning 18-17.
Everybody but the officials on the field said this was wrong, but no recourse.
Regretfully, this is the correct ruling by the judge, and you can thank the legalized-match-fixing ruling (Mayer v. Belichick, New England Patriots, and National Football League), even if the judge didn't cite it.
Even in the worst possible case here -- a fixed match with an intentional bad call -- there's no recourse because of Mayer.
Now, there might be ONE possible interpretation of the rules (the "making a game into a farce" rule) that might allow for what happened here, but no one believes that to be the case.
Still, Plainfield wins, I guess.
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