Fifth Down Game (1990)
The Fifth Down was the name of a college football play that was the result of an error by the crew officiating the game. This play enabled the Colorado Buffaloes to defeat the Missouri Tigers by scoring a touchdown on the last play of their game on October 6, 1990. The ensuing controversy cast doubt on the claim to major college football's 1990 national championship by Colorado. It has been marked as one of the top memorable moments in college football history.[1]
In American football, a team is allowed four attempts or "downs" to move the ball ten yards towards the goal line. If the offense moves ten yards in four attempts or less, it gains a "first down" which restarts the process. If, after four attempts, the offense has neither scored nor gained ten yards, the other team is given possession of the ball. Under normal circumstances (for example, excluding penalties which can involve replaying a down), no team is supposed to be allowed five attempts. However, due to an officiating error, Colorado was given a fifth down which they used to score the game-winning touchdown as time expired.
Game recap
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Total | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
#12 Buffaloes | 7 | 7 | 3 | 16 | 33 |
Tigers | 14 | 0 | 7 | 10 | 31 |
The game pitted the Colorado Buffaloes (CU) against their Big Eight Conference rival, the Missouri Tigers (MU), and was played on October 6, 1990 in front of a crowd of 46,856.[2] The game was played at Faurot Field, Missouri's home stadium in Columbia, Missouri. Colorado's starting quarterback, Darian Hagan, was injured and backup quarterback Charles Johnson, who had some playing time the previous week and season, played the game. However, Colorado was still heavily favored to win.[3] Colorado was ranked #12 in the nation while Missouri was unranked. Colorado's record coming into the game was 3-1-1 (three wins, one loss, one tie) with wins over #12 Washington and #20 Texas ranked teams and unranked Stanford; their loss to the #21 ranked Illinois team and the tie to #8 Tennessee.[4] Missouri was 2-2 (two wins, two losses) coming in to the game with wins over #21 Arizona State and unranked Utah State and losses to unranked TCU and Indiana.[5]
The lead in this game changed several times, and several big plays kept the momentum swinging. With less than three minutes to go, Colorado got the ball deep in its own territory trailing by the score of 31-27. Johnson led the team on a last-ditch drive. With about 40 seconds to go, he completed a pass to a Colorado tight end who fell down just yards short of the goal line. This play gave the Buffaloes a first down, but it led to immediate confusion because the Buffs were running a hurry-up offense.
On first down, Johnson spiked the ball to stop the clock. On second down, a power run into the line by Eric Bienemy was stopped just short of the goal line. But the officiating crew forgot to flip the down marker to note that it was now third down. On the next play, the Buffaloes made the same call and Bienemy was again stopped short of the end zone. Johnson then spiked the ball to stop the clock with two seconds left. He later claimed that he had no idea the officials had made a mistake, and believed he was spiking the ball on third down.[3] On the following play – fourth down according to the marker, but "fifth down" in reality – Johnson kept the ball himself. Although there was some question as to whether he had broken the plane of the goal line,[6] the officials awarded Colorado a touchdown.
Referee J.C. Louderback and the Big Eight officiating crew conferred for nearly 20 minutes to decide their course of action. During the delay, radio and television announcers noticed that Colorado had scored with the help of an additional play. Louderback was shown on the phone. After a lengthy consultation, the referees announced their decision: It was a touchdown, and Colorado would now have to run the extra-point conversion. Not wanting to take any risks with only a two-point lead, the Buffaloes snapped the ball and downed it to end a controversial 33-31 contest.[7][8].
Scoring Details
Team | Description | Score | Time | Quarter |
---|---|---|---|---|
MU | Bailey 19yd pass from Kiefer (Jacke kick) | 0-7 | 11:10 | 1 |
CU | Bieniemy 29yd run (Harper kick) | 7-7 | 3:19 | 1 |
MU | Mays 49yd pass from Kiefer (Jacke kick) | 7-14 | 1:55 | 1 |
CU | Pritchard 68yd run (Harper kick) | 14-14 | 1:45 | 2 |
CU | Harper 35yd FG | 17-14 | 10:51 | 3 |
MU | Jones 13yd run (Jacke Kick) | 17-21 | 7:30 | 3 |
CU | Pritchard 70yd pass from Johnson (Harper) | 24-21 | 13:56 | 4 |
MU | Jacke 45yd FG | 24-24 | 11:11 | 4 |
CU | Harper 39yd FG | 27-24 | 3:41 | 4 |
MU | Mays 38yd pass from Kiefer (Jacke kick) | 27-31 | 2:32 | 4 |
CU | Johnson 1yd run (conv. failed) | 33-31 | 0:00 | 4 |
Fallout
Colorado football coach Bill McCartney did little to soothe the controversy. Asked whether he would consider forfeiting the game, McCartney declared that he had considered it but decided against it because "the field was lousy." (He complained about the unusually slick Omniturf artificial turf surface, which he said had caused repeated slips and falls during the game.) Oddly, McCartney did not make the more compelling argument that Colorado had not truly benefited from a "fifth down", since Johnson would most likely not have spiked the ball on what the officials were calling third down had it been correctly designated as fourth down.[citation needed]
The NCAA football rules might be interpreted as disallowing an official forfeit anyway. In American football, a decision made by the officials during the course of play cannot be reversed after the game ends. If the "fifth down" play had occurred earlier, so that time remained on the clock when the play ended, the play could have been nullified. Instant replay attempts to correct officiating mistakes by reviewing (or replaying) using recorded video feeds of the sporting match in order to ensure that the correct call is made on the play. However, this is done during the game and no review after the game could overturn an officials call during the game.
Closure came in the summer of 1998 – four years after McCartney retired as the Buffs head coach – when he admitted to making mistakes and being saddened by the Fifth Down fiasco. McCartney made the remarks at a Promise Keepers gathering at the site of the controversy, Columbia, Missouri.[9]
National championship
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) governs American football as played by the teams representing the largest universities in the United States, termed Division I-A football or "major college football." Although smaller schools participate in formal NCAA tournaments to determine the national college football championships in Divisions I-AA, II, and III, Division I-A lacks such a tournament.
The "mythical national championship" of major college football, as it is commonly known, is determined by polls of experts. In the early 1990s, two such polls were regarded as authoritative: a poll of sportswriters conducted by the Associated Press (AP) called the AP Poll, and a poll of college football coaches conducted by the American Football Coaches' Association called the Coaches Poll. These polls are conducted weekly during the football season, and the final poll (in January, after all bowl games) determines the championship.
Because 1990 was a year in which no single college football team was dominant, the Fifth Down controversy played a role in determining the national champion of major college football for the 1990 season. Immediately before the Missouri game, Colorado was ranked 12th nationally, and Missouri was unranked (ranked 26th or lower). The Missouri game actually caused Colorado's ranking to decline to 14th. However, most of the top teams lost in subsequent weeks, while the Buffaloes won their remaining games, including squeakers over highly-rated Nebraska and Notre Dame. The Orange Bowl victory over Notre Dame was considered very controversial as well (Notre Dame Coach Lou Holtz had told his team in a pregame speech that Colorado was "living a lie"), due to a questionable clipping call on the Irish on a punt return touchdown late in the game by Raghib Ismail when Colorado held a 10-9 lead, which would be the final score after Notre Dame was assessed the penalty.
Colorado finished the 1990 season with a record of 11–1–1 (eleven wins, one loss and one tie) [4], while the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets' record was 11-0-1, (eleven wins, zero losses and one tie).[10] No major college team had an unblemished record, and only Georgia Tech finished without a loss.
(NCAA football rules permitted ties in 1990. Subsequent rule changes in 1996 introduced overtime play, so that all games since are victories for one team or the other.)
Observers favoring Colorado for the national championship noted that they had played a more difficult schedule than Georgia Tech. Those favoring Georgia Tech pointed to the Yellow Jackets' undefeated status and to the tainted victory achieved by Colorado at Missouri in the "Fifth Down" game. With a loss at Missouri, the Colorado record would have been 10–2–1, and the Buffaloes surely would not have been considered for the national title with that record.
After the conclusion of the 1990 season, in January, 1991, the AP Poll voted Colorado national champions. The Coaches Poll voted the championship to Georgia Tech. Both universities therefore claim the 1990 championship.
More recently, the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) has been established to create a national championship game for major college football in which the top two ranked teams in the BCS Poll (which takes into account both the human polls and six computer polls). However, the BCS has not been without controversy, for instance, in the 2004 football season, USC, Oklahoma, Utah, and Auburn all had unblemished records: USC defeated Oklahoma to claim the national title, but Utah and Auburn also won their respective BCS games to go undefeated.
Missouri ended the season 4-7 (four wins, seven losses).[5]
Precedent
The Colorado Fifth Down was not the first time such a play had happened. In 1940, an Ivy League contest between Dartmouth and Cornell ended similarly. Cornell had won 18 straight games when they completed the game-winning touchdown pass on fifth down. After officials reviewed game film, they discovered their error. And by agreement of the Cornell players, coach, and athletic director, Cornell forfeited the game to Dartmouth by telegram. This game is therefore regarded as a 3-0 Dartmouth victory, instead of a 7-3 triumph by Cornell.[11]
There is room for doubt as to whether the Cornell forfeit was "official" according to NCAA rules. However, the general public recognizes the Cornell telegram of forfeit, so NCAA recognition of it may be moot.
Fifth downs occur at other times as well, though rare.[12] [13] But they even more rarely affect the outcome of the game.
References
- ^ "College football's best of the last 20 years" (HTML). USA Today. 2002-11-19. Retrieved 2006-11-21.
- ^ "No. 12 Colorado 33, Missouri 31" (HTML). CUBuffs.com. 1990-10-06. Retrieved 2006-11-21.
- ^ a b Steve Megargee (2006-06-06). "Johnson: Fifth Down was an Honest Mistake" (HTML). Scout.com. Retrieved 2006-11-21.
- ^ a b "Football - 1990 Schedule/Results" (HTML). CUBuffs.com. 1990. Retrieved 2006-11-21.
- ^ a b "FB Year By Year Scores" (HTML). CSTV.com. Retrieved 2006-11-21.
- ^ JOE WALLJASPER (2005-08-25). "Why can't they win?" (HTML). Retrieved 2006-11-21.
- ^ The rules have since changed not requiring the extra point try if time has expired and the result will not affect the outcome of the game
- ^ Kelly Whiteside (2006-08-24). "Overtime system still excites coaches" (HTML). USAToday.com. Retrieved 2006-11-21.
- ^ AP (1998-06-20). "McCartney 'remorseful' about fifth-down play" (HTML). CNN.com. Retrieved 2006-11-21.
- ^ 1990 NCAA Division I-A football season
- ^ "Cornell Big Red hosts Dartmouth Big Green" (HTML). IvyLeagueSports.com. Retrieved 2006-11-21.
- ^ Jack Park. "OSU overcomes Wisconsin's 'fifth down'" (HTML). BuckeyeExtra.com. Retrieved 2006-11-21.
- ^ Clark Judge (2006-11-05). "Judgements: Ravens offense still never-scores" (HTML). CBSNews.com. Retrieved 2006-11-21.