NCAA changes ‘clear and immediate recovery’ guidelines too late for Hogs

It will be too late to help Arkansas, but the NCAA this week is making a change to the replay guidelines for “clear and immediate recovery” on loose balls following an inadvertent whistle.

Against Auburn last week, the Razorbacks lost a replay decision after Auburn quarterback Bo Nix, trying to set up a play to kill the clock and set up a winning field goal, fumbled the snap from center, then threw the ball behind him trying to spike the ball. During the play, the officials incorrectly whistled the play dead, even though the pass was backwards as confirmed by replay.

The Razorbacks’ Joe Foucha recovered the ball on a second attempt after a first one was considered in the immediate continuing action. After it squirted out, the next recovery was not considered immediate.

Officials and replay looked at the play, which was called intentional grounding on the field, then gave the Tigers a chance for a winning field goal that was converted by Anders Carlson for the 30-28 win.

The new guideline will allow replay to consider ANY recovery, it was reported during The Morning Rush on ESPN Arkansas on Friday morning.

The Morning Rush was able to confirm this with two different sources with direct knowledge of the information sent to replay officials yesterday.