Two of the best games of the year: Ohio State’s win vs. Michigan and Clemson’s win at Florida State. They were also two of the most hollered-about. The losing teams meet in the Orange Bowl (8 p.m. ET, ESPN) on Friday night.
Michigan and FSU might not be in the Orange Bowl without calls that got their coaches fined
One of these plays might’ve kept Michigan out of the Playoff. The other might’ve saved the ACC’s Playoff bid.
Photo by Jamie Sabau/Getty Images
You remember The Spot in Columbus.
That overtime J.T. Barrett first down is all but impossible to prove or disprove by using video evidence, so some Big Ten fans have now spent a solid month lobbing MS Paint Zaprudering at each other, hoping to sway onlookers. This will continue for 11 more months.
But you might’ve forgotten about a late call from October. This was ruled to be an illegal block on FSU, negating a Dalvin Cook run that would’ve increased the chances of a Seminoles upset of Clemson:
FSU head coach Jimbo Fisher was immediately irate over that (and some other stuff), with something on FSU’s sideline resulting in a bonus 15-yard penalty ...
... and after the game, he called the game’s officiating “ridiculous,” “cowardly,” and so forth.
The ACC fined him $20,000.
Jim Harbaugh reacted in a similar way to earlier controversial calls in Michigan-Ohio State, smashing his headset and also drawing a penalty on himself ...
... and afterward, delivering a critique of The Spot and other issues that earned him a $10,000 Big Ten fine.
The Big Ten did later admit the officiating was imperfect, but like most of us who aren’t personally invested in the outcome, sees no reason to question the decision to give Ohio State that first down.
Would these calls have ended up changing the season, if they’d gone the other way?
Michigan’s certainly could’ve, if the game’s result had changed. The Wolverines would’ve won the Big Ten East and been favored to beat Wisconsin in the Big Ten Championship.
The Buckeyes would be out of the Playoff, and if Michigan won the Big Ten, Michigan would be in. Ohio State would’ve either taken Penn State’s Rose Bowl bid, fallen to this Orange Bowl, or fallen to the Cotton to face Western Michigan.
Clemson could’ve still won the ACC with a loss to FSU, but if the rest of the season played out as it did, three-loss Louisville would’ve won the ACC Atlantic. The ACC would’ve had no shot at the Playoff in that case. Clemson, Louisville, or Virginia Tech would’ve taken the Orange Bowl’s automatic bid if the Orange didn’t have to give up the ACC champion to the Playoff. And if FSU didn’t rank well enough to land in the Cotton as an at-large, it would’ve fallen to the Russell Athletic or Citrus.
Even the Cotton would’ve meant a game in Texas against a mid-major, rather than an in-state game against a huge power. So FSU improved its bowl status by losing to Clemson because of conference tie-ins.
So these two calls helped these two coaches meet up, whether anybody was happy about that along the way or not.
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