Stanford somehow bounced a field goal off the TOP of the upright

Stanford kicker Conrad Ukropina made magic happen against Notre Dame. He doinked a field goal off the top of the upright.

I’ve been watching football my whole life, and I have never seen this happen.

I mean, just think about how improbable that is! The trajectory of the football caused it to kiss a six-inch circle 40 feet in the air, and not just any six-inch circle 40 feet in the air, but the particular six-inch circle that serves as the top of the dividing line between a make and a miss.

But unfortunately, the rulebook doesn’t think it should be worth 100 points. It says that it is worth zero points. A field goal is considered to be good if it “passes over the crossbar between the uprights of the receiving team’s goal.” This one certainly passed over the crossbar, but if it passes directly over one of the uprights, it didn’t pass between the uprights.

And as we found out last year when Indiana lost the Pinstripe Bowl, you’re not allowed to review field goals that pass over the top of the uprights. Why? We’re not quite sure. But that’s the rule.

Maybe in the future the rulebook will call for 50-foot tall uprights so balls like this can doink in or out, instead of leaving us in confusion when they pass over the top of the upright. But until then, I will marvel in glory at this particular field goal. So magical, so beautiful, so pointless.