The Win

On BYU's win over the Washington Huskies, including the
controversial "Excessive Celebration" penalty: 9/6/2008.
Click here for the story.

Point #1:
Rule 9-2, Article 1(a)(2) says that "After a score or any other play, the player in possession immediately must return the ball to an official or leave it near the dead-ball spot." Obviously, this did not happen. Good call or bad call, that's the rule in the book - whether or not the ball was thrown "high into the air" or "behind his neck". Where the ball was thrown has nothing to do with it - notice that the official statement did not say "high into the air" but "into the air", meaning that Locker threw the ball at all instead of giving it to an official or setting it on the ground. That portion of the rule is not subjective.

Point #2:
The penalty really didn't matter, because the extra point was blocked, not missed. From 20- or from 35-yards, it was still blocked. In addition, BYU deserved that block as they deserved to win the whole game. The Cougars clearly were the better team, with more passing yards than the Huskies had total. Can anyone say, "Dennis Pitta is amazing"?

Point #3:
I don't really need to make it, because it's been said already and anyone who was even remotely paying attention should know. But for the sake of thoroughness I will: The 20-yard pass to Goodwin was only made possible by blatant Husky cheating - holding so obvious even I caught it. And that uncalled penalty was only one of many (and on a crucial play! If the fate of the game was changed by the refs, it was right there - the next down should have been 3rd and 29, not 1st and 10). Washington fans complaining about poor calling by the officials are absolutely correct.

It was HORRIBLE.