In an ending that stunned Spartan fans across Michigan, the Michigan State Spartans fell to the Nebraska Cornhuskers 39-38 Saturday night, following a call being questioned by many.

In one of the final plays of the game, the Cornhuskers scored a touchdown with a 91-yard drive that lasted only 38 seconds, and ended with a 30-yard pass from Tommy Armstrong to Brandon Reilly with only 17 seconds left on the clock. The problem? Reilly had stepped out of bounds prior to receiving the ball. 

Stepping out of bounds while running a route makes a player an ineligible, but upon reviewing the play, the officials determined that Reilly had been forced out of bounds by MSU's Jermaine Edmonson.

This is a judgement call. There’s clearly contact, whether there’s enough contact to force Reilly out of bounds or not, that’s the question. But the officials that review the play in the booth, if they deem that there was contact, they can not review the play. That is not a review-able penalty.

When the review officials looked at it, if there was no contact at all, then they could have reversed it and given Nebraska a penalty. But the fact that there was contact, regardless of the result of the contact, it could not be overturned, because that’s not a judgement call and can’t be reviewed.

The Spartans still had time to pull out the win, and following a time out, to the field with 10 seconds remaining on the clock. MSU quarterback Connor Cook took all of those 10 seconds to make a pass, which he threw wildly out of bounds.

In a press conference following the game, Spartans' couch Mark Dantonio said,

So there’s plenty to go around. But with that being said, you’ve got to credit the people who played against you, and I didn’t think the officiating lost us the football game.

The Spartans came into the game undefeated and ranked sixth in the nation.

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