It didn't take the Mid-American Conference long to admit that the call at the end of the Miami-Ball State game was incorrect. On Friday, just one day after men's basketball coach Tim Buckley and athletics director Bubba Cunningham contacted the MAC about the call, the MAC admitted the call was incorrect.
"The game should have gone into overtime," Commissioner Rick Chryst said.
In the final seconds of the game, Nathan Peavy grabbed the rebound with less than a second remaining and put up a jump shot. While video shows the ball in Peavy's hand and the shot clock light on as the horn sounds, the shot was ruled good on the floor. But because the game was not on live television, the call could not be reviewed by officials. The call gave Miami a 54-52 win.
While Chryst acknowledged the mistake, he did not criticize the officiating, saying that the call was "extremely close."
"[It is] only after reviewing multiple camera angles and slowing video down to a frame-by-frame analysis that one can definitively conclude the game-winning shot occurred after the clock had reached zero," he said. "This is a veteran crew -- with over 50 years of combined officiating experience in major Division I basketball, including the Big Ten, the MAC and the NCAA Tournament -- and I have the highest confidence in their abilities and judgment."
While the MAC was willing to admit that a mistake had been made, it ruled that the officials acted properly and stated that the final score will stand.
"Everyone puts a lot of time and energy into this, and to have a situation like we had Wednesday is disappointing," coach Tim Buckley said. "With the technology and video capability we have at our disposal, we hope situations like this can be corrected."
Chryst said that he hopes the MAC can make changes in the future to prevent further situations like the Miami game.
"In my opinion, we need to do better as a conference in terms of providing every possible resource to our officials to get these calls right," Chryst said. "I would like to see a courtside monitor and video replay in every league game, and following the season we will review our game management protocols with our coaches and administrators to evaluate how best to try and achieve that goal."
~This report was compiled from press releases and staff reports
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