http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/30/sports/ncaafootball/30lateral.htmlA day after a wild, lateral-filled ending to the Alamo Bowl, David Parry, the N.C.A.A.'s national coordinator for officiating, said that the officials should have thrown flags because Michigan and Nebraska had too many players on the field as the final play unfolded.
Nevertheless, Parry said, the mistake did not affect the outcome of the game, because the penalties by each team would have offset each other, and because time had expired. Parry said that the officials should have explained to each team why the game had ended so abruptly.
"Simply what you had was too many men on the field by Nebraska - a whole slew of them - and Michigan had two or three extra men out there," Parry said in a telephone interview last night. "Since both teams had too many men and both teams fouled, it was an offsetting penalty, and the game was over. I think it might have been wise to throw penalty flags and to announce, to say, that it was an offsetting penalty, the game was over."
After the game, Michigan Coach Lloyd Carr complained about the finish. "I think it was obvious that there was a violation of the rules," he said, according to a statement released by the university.
Parry said that if the officials had felt that the runners were forced to alter their course to avoid Nebraska's extra players, they would have called a penalty