I've never seen anything like it before. It defies words. The Big 12 should be ashamed they let it happen.
It case you didn't see it, here is what happened.
BYU was back on their own 19. They had no timeouts and there was only 1:22 on the clock. Utah's defense had been aggressive and successful.
Things were looking very dire for BYU--until the refs stepped in.
You see, on the next shotgun snap, the referee actually intercepted the snap, rolled left, and threw the ball downfield for about 30 yards.
It wasn't a great throw and the BYU receiver was not going to catch it.
Shockingly, the back judge darted to the ball and made an amazing diving catch, just barely getting his hands under the ball.
It looked like the ball might have touched the ground, so they did a review, but of course the refs were not going to overrule a great catch made by one of their their own.
They smugly ruled it a complete catch for a long first down.
One the next play from the BYU 49 with 1:07 to go, the referee again took the snap and threw it for 11 yards and the side judge stepped in and made the catch for another first down.
Now this was just getting ridiculous. Two first downs in a row?
Then from the Utah 39, the referee actually ran it right for 14 yards. Unthinkable! A third first down to the Utah 25, now in FG range.
One ref thought he should keep doing his job, so on the next play, he called illegal procedure against BYU putting them back on the 30.
They then let BYU run a few safe running plays to get up to the Utah 26.
Things got really crazy when an alternate ref came off the sideline to line up to kick a FG.
The refs conspired and let BYU run the clock down to 10 seconds, when they snapped it, and wouldn't you know it, the ref made the 44 yard field goal for the lead!
The refs weren't done yet though!
There were still :03 and BYU had to kick-off and Utah had a chance for a miraculous return TD for the win.
There was some confusion on the field and as Utah was returning the kick, the UTAH AD politely went onto the field and kindly asked a ref about it.
The ref did NOT want the risk of Utah winning the game on the return, so he threw a flag right away.
That way, if a TD was scored, they could nullify it with a bogus Unsportsmanlike call against the Utah AD.
It was scandalous--have you ever seen a ref penalize an AD before? Again, I've never seen anything like it.
But the "steal" was on and the crew was not going to risk letting their previous great plays go to waste.
After the return got stopped, just to rub it in Utah's face, the ref announced the Unsportsmanlike call and said the game was over.
And that is how the refs stole the football game from the Utes.