Nobody said that celebration was unsportsmanlike. The rule specifically states that it is a penalty if the ball is "thrown high in the air". How high is too high? That is the only room for judgement in this case. The rule does not say that the player must seek out an official and hand the ball to him. The rule does not say that a player may not throw the ball at all (i.e., between the legs, backhanded out of the endzone, tossed over the shoulder, etc.) Only when it is thrown "high" in the air. I suppose that if Collie stopped, spiked the ball between his legs while facing the Huskie fans or bench, then put his hands on his hips, or made a mocking show of praying to the heavens (taunting the opponent or fans) he should have been called. The officials would have loved to look the other way if he had not vigorously thrown the ball the other way. Bottom line, it's okay, just don't make a spectacle of one's self while doing it. Best idea--go back to your own bench and showboat all you want to the crowd. Poor sportsmanship? Yes. Penalty? No.

What was done by the Washington QB on Sat was not even close to poor sportsmanship. Going by the strict interpritation of the rule, then yes it is a penalty, but this incident only shows how aweful the rule is. I think it is unexcuseable that college football punnishes a kid for being excited. He clearly wasn't trying to show up the other team or do anything to call attention to himself, he was just excited that he had just made a huge play in the context of the game.

I don't care who whould have won if it were not called, or what would have happend. I am only going off on this now becasue it is the most current example of why the rule as it is currently written and enforsed is so bad for college football, as I have always hated this rule. I don't want to see them over-rotate to the other direction either, but there is some middle ground that should be reached.

BYU BLOCKED THE KICK! BYU BLOCKED THE KICK! BYU BLOCKED THE KICK!

We can thank the University of Miami for this stupid rule. If they had acted with "class" in their good years, NCAA football would not have to deal with this issue now.

Could somebody please explain to me who blocked the kick? I could swear it was Ohio State who blocked it.

Oh wait, just saw the post above at 8:31.....thanks for clearing that up for me.

We hear the same thing every year..."The Mountain West Conference needs to do better against the BCS." Duh!

The bottom line is that every conference has three, maybe four teams that vie for conference championship every year (unless you're in the PAC-10 and have USC in your conference). The MWC is no different. BYU, Utah, TCU and every decade Colorado State really only has a chance to win the conference.

So to say that the MWC has to be better is unrealistic. The bottom half of the MWC will never beat the BCS teams, just like the top half of the conference could play the weak half of the BCS and go undefeated.

What we should be worried about isn't SDSU beating Noter Dame, rather SDSU not getting beat by Cal-Poly.

Fact is... BYU IS SO OVERRATED THAT THIS SHOULD NOT EVEN HAVE BEEN A CLOSE GAME. and the reason Utah and TCU have winning records against the BCS is because they don't think they should win every game, they just suit up and leave it all on the field. BYU thinks that making up funny slogans about being perfect means they should just get the trophy and go home.

I appreciated your comments about Weber State vs. Hawaii. It should be no surprise that Hawaii does better in the second half. As always, it's somewhere between midnight and 2 A.M. for the haulis/mainlanders. Hawaii should be required to schedule their games at 1 PM... of course, if they did that, their consistently miserable teams would never have a winning record (to those who disagree, look at their record when not playing on top of a volcano in the middle of the ocean).

JP

I loved listening to Bronco crying during the week about playing on the road in the Pac-10 "with Pac-10 officials." Be careful what you wish for this week Bronco, i.e., "a Pac-10 team at home with MWC officials."

It's a stupid rule, enough said. But BYU won and life goes on. Beat LA!

To: Unsportsmanlike Irony - To clarify it’s “a Pac-10 team at home with Pac-10 officials.” The PAC-10's slogan should be, “Don’t leave home without them (PAC-10 refs).

Funny, the USC Trojans barely win against Washington (27 - 24), at Washington, last year and there is no flinch in the standings. BYU barely wins and there is a drop of 3 places in the AP Poll and questions flying everywhere. It's a tough place to play, it would be nice to see Oklahoma struggle there this next week!

"Utah and TCU have winning records against the BCS is because they don't think they should win every game" Huh? Wow, I don't even know where to begin. That's the kind of mentality I want on my team, guys who don't think they should win. We don't think a new slogan gets us the title. Just in case you were in a coma the last two seasons, we earned the MWC titles by leaving it all on the field. C'mon hater, you can come up with a better reason for us being ranked.

To Big Play: We get it! But, it is a lot easier to block when kicking from the 35 than the 10. Or have you never played football, I thought so.

All these commentators and "experts" that imply the penalty is what decided this game is an absolute moron! Yeah, maybe it was a bad call by the offical, but they're missing the friggin point. U-dub's special teams FAILED!!!!! The huskies were overwelmed in the trenches!!!!! The cougars blew their O-line and blocked the kick...end of conversation. The fact is, a Division 1-A kicker has no room to argue that adding 15 yards to a friggin PAT made all the difference. C'mon gimmie a friggin break. Huskies special teams failed to execute. End of conversation.

Oklahoma won't struggle to beat Washington. BYU had to drop behind at least Oregon, a team that throttled this same Husky team that almost beat BYU.

It's alright if we dropped three spots in the AP poll. The AP requested their poll of "Spots Writers" be removed from the BCS calculation this year...it was...the Coaches poll is the poll to monitor...the football coaches, the men who actually make a living, year round, believe the Coug's are No 15.

Actually UNLV has more impressive wins against BSC teams than BYU does. They won at Wisconson when they were ranked in the top ten, tell me the last time BYU won on the road against a top 10 BCS team. BYU was 0-9 on the road against non conference teams before saturday, now they are 1-9. Thats the problem, the supposed best team has one non conference road win the past five seasons, ouch!!!

Jake Locker is a good kid, I feel bad that he was penalized at the end, that rule isn't really fair and I don't think he should have been called for it. What I think they SHOULD have been called for is the no joke, no less than 5 HOLDS during the legnth of the entire final drive! If they got called out when they should have been, we would have stopped them, and we wouldn't be in this mess in the first place (i.e. final score would've been 28-21, or even 35-21 if Harvey Unga hadn't fumbled the ball). I'm glad, for our sake, that it was called though to atone for ALL of the missed calls during the game, even though I personally feel that THAT PARTICULAR CALL wasn't fair to them. Also, it's so ironic, if you look at a picture of the blocked PAT, it even shows, plain as day, a U dub player HOLDING Jan Jorgensen, who still blocked it, and the ref was LOOKING RIGHT AT IT!!! AAAHHH!!! I HATE Pac-10 refs!

And if MWC teams don't improve against BCS opponents, what happens? World peace is stifled yet another year? Global warming hikes the thermometer two more degrees?

I must be daft. I recall reading more than one article that indicated the reason for FCS and FBS games was addition of a 12th game each season. Unless a team plays another twice in a season, it seems obvious the best methof of finding a new opponent is in a different subdivision.

Did the writer miss those articles?

I'm sure Michigan would have preferred to play someone other than Applachian State last year (oh, that was AFTER the game). And the Wolverines probably don't want to play another MWC team too soon, either.

But if Michigan did, it might drop the global temperature a degree or two.

It will be interesting to see how Oklahoma handles Washington in Seattle with the PAC-10 refs. Don’t count out the Huskies. Seems like Oklahoma knows about being hosed by PAC-10 refs from past experience.

for a Utah paper; Sorensen is preaching to the choir. Utah and BYU, along with TCU are doing their part in beating OOC opponents.

San Diego State almost always has a close OOC game, and almost always loses.

The biggest disappointment so far this season is New Mexico. The Lobos must be counting on their hometown bowl to reward a mediocre effort. Texas A&M was a very winnable game.

BYU also has the longest current winning streak (no qualifications) in the country and hasn't lost a conference game since 2005. Utah has lost SIX conference games since the last time BYU lost a MWC game.

But, for the BYU haters, the glass for BYU will ALWAYS be half empty.

It's still early, but I wouldn't be a bit surprised to see Washington AND UCLA finish with MUCH better records than Michigan and Oregon State.

A week after losing to Utah, Michigan wasn't all that impressive in beating Miami-Ohio 16-6. Fortunately, Michigan gets a break this week at Notre Dame, a team that SHOULD have lost to San Diego State.

Oregon State (0-2) was pulverized by Penn State 45-14.

The conversation about the penalty has been nearly absurd.

This was a stupid play by a kid who knew the rule and decided his excitement was more important than his team.

It was easy to see why the Huskies can't win.

BYU played very poorly on defense and yet won.

But the stars are lining up for the Utes. It looks like an easy path until TCU.

You have finally have given our conference a little more respect by squeaking by the PAC 10 again. Jim Rome even showed you a little love today on his show about being a possible BCS buster this year. That said, I hope you lose in conference this year and see first hand what it feels like to be a UTE fan. (Knowing how to beat bigger schools but losing conference games). It's not so bad. I'd rather go to San Diego than Vegas anyway.

UTAH ROCKS!

I hate to say it, but I am pretty sure Oklahoma will destroy Washington. Great teams don't always win by big margins, they just win. BYU is not a great team right now, thanks to the Defense, but they won that game. I hope everyone overlooks BYU now because of the close win. Get the BCS busting talk out of here and let the players worry about one game at a time. Some of you Utah fans, grow up!!! I hope Utah is successful all season until they play BYU. I always want UofU to succeed, but a lot of you U fans absolutely hate the Y. BYU's defense is very inexperienced and will get much better with time.

Airforce, Wyoming on the road after last year and you say easy path. I am a huge Ute and am nervous about these especialy if we play one half at a time

The shame in the call is the fact that it took away the opportunity of UW to go for 2.

Trade New Mexico and Wyoming for Fresno State and Boise State. (I let San Diego off the hook because it's a better TV market).

To Blueute: thanks for the clarification about UCLA bringing PAC-10 refs this week. Back to the irony though: let's see if Bronco will be crying about the PAC-10 officials again....

Pac 10 ref's aren't the only one's who messed up a good game. San diego clearly crossed the goal line and then the ball popped out - so instead of a San diego touchdown they gave Notre Dame the ball. Suprising? No - all those big schools and the big conferences have homer refs - but I have to admit the Pac-10 is the worst. Can someone clarify for me that there will Pac-10 refs in Provo on Saturday? It's hard enough playing a tough opponent but unreasonable to have to play against the zebra's too.

with regard to the defense... the defense as a whole played great (well, at least the front 7) even thought every time the ball was snapped on defense i saw one of our players get tackled or held or both. our secondary SUCKED. tafuna giving up 4th and 20something, fowler not tackling anybody, and howard not being able to cover anyone or tackle. the only person that played well was scotty j. good tackling good coverage etc. he must've gone to a sweet high school.

BYU will defense UCLA totally different than they did the Huskies! Defending Locker required a different strategy due to his fleet feet. Defending agianst UCLA QB you will see BYU try to push him out of the pocket while with Locker, they tried to keep him in the pocket! If BYU defenders can force Craft out of the pocket enough times, the cougars will win the game. If not, Craft can pick them apart. Key to the game= force Craft out of the pocket!! If so, Craft will throw enough incompletes or interceptions that BYU will win.

If you go strictly by the rulebook, Austin Collie did not break any rules. He kept the ball where the ball went dead and did not throw it up into the air. The rules say you must either keep the ball wherever the play was dead, which Collie did, or hand the ball to the official. In the same rule, it states that you cannot throw the ball high into the air. That is a judgment call for the officials. But I think, if you watch the replay, that 2.5 seconds in the air is pretty high.

I know that the rule states that you're not supposed to throw the ball in the air, but seriously, what's wrong with flipping the ball in the air? Throwing the ball at the other team...unsportsmanlike. Shouting at the other team...unsportsmanlike. Yeah, I can see wierd things like that, but simply throwing the ball straight up in the air...I don't get it. By the way, I'm a BYU student right now and a diehard BYU fan, but since the call in essence did nothing for BYU's reputation, except for some publicity, somebody please tell me why throwing the ball 15 feet into the air is such a bad thing. I am not asking this cynically, I am asking this seriously.

Hey "HODGE"

AS I RECALL THE Y BEAT THE U TWICE IN A ROW..07..06...WE'LL SEE IN NOVEMBER WHO IS THE BEST TEAM....YOU HAVE TO WIN THE CONFERENCE BEFORE YOU SPOUT YOUR SUPERIORITY....

COUGS CLOBBER BRUINS

Coach Willingham said he wasn't even thinking about going for two: he was going to kick the PAT and go to overtime. But the line didn't block and Jorg got his meaty paw on the ball at about head-high. That ball could have hit a lineman in the back of the head it was so low.

Call was probably correct but a lame way to end the game, but UW lost because it made one too few plays.

Suddenly every school down south fan is a complete expert on the NCAA football rule book.

Classic.

UCLA 45 - BYU 20. (one blocked PAT for the Bruins).

Go look at the rankings, thats the argument, they are 18 in both. Dropped 3 spots in your beloved coaches poll. And to Big Bear, you had to big play come from behind wins, that doesnt show anything more than being equal to a team that was missing the core of their team last year. This year you will face a healthy Utah team, if your within 2 touchdowns Ill be surprised.

1. To: San Diego got robbed... About the refs, it will be a PAC-10 crew. Nothing BYU can do about that.
2. About the offense, they better have a plan to block Bruce Davis. He was all over Hall the last two games. I don’t think as good as Reynolds is at LT he can stop him, after all he is a freshman.
3. About the defense, don’t worry about Chow having the Cougar play book, but BYU must be ready to make in-game adjustments to what he is calling.

Um, actually they are still 15 in the coaches poll. Go look at the rankings.

You would think that only one official called "the penalty" and the others went along grudgingly. 3 flags immediately after the "offense" is not a judgement call.

Yes, I've played the game. You play with passion, but you also play with discipline. It isn't that tough - you can legally showboat by calmly handing the ball to the official. Something new and different.

Discipline breaks down for a moment, a crucial moment, and the whole game changes.

Blueute: Bruce Davis graduated. Also, the playbook has changed significantly since Norm Chow coached at BYU (1999).

Celebration Penalty: The call was made correctly. There was a similar call in the 2nd Quarter that pushed back the PAT (only 5 yds) - UW made the extended kick.

Physics Professors: Kickers generally don't change the trajectory on the ball until about 40 yards (the idea is to kick high enough to avoid a Block). The reason the Kick is more difficult is that the degree of accuracy is inversly proportional to the square of the distance.

Outcome Effect: The decision to execute an ALL-OUT Rush was made because the chance of an attempt for 2-pt Conversion was minimal (BTW - Coach Willingham never was going to go for two - See Seattle Times).

Bottom Line: The Penalty allowed the BYU Coaches to make the decision to Sell-out to Block the Kick. BYU Blocked it. Game over.

All penalties have an impact, some more than others.

MWC teams need to understanding that you don't win games simply by outgaining your opponent in yards. You actually have to hold on to the ball and score points too. I know, it's a novel idea but it's about time MWC teams learned it.

The bruins won't hold BYU to 20 points. If they win, they win close.

BYU-38
UCLA-34