The Atlantic Coast Conference has been under fire in the days after the controversial ending of a game between two conference foes.
The Miami Hurricanes and Virginia Tech Hokies took turns celebrating what each team believed at the time was a victory.
But college football games can only have one winner.
A chaotic final play resulted in heartbreak for Virginia Tech when referees overturned a Hail Mary touchdown that allowed Miami to survive. This week, Virginia Tech coach Brent Pry became the latest critic of the ACC.
Pry argued game officials failed to provide an explanation in the moments after their call or in the locker room after Friday’s game. The coach revealed he did not receive an explanation about the reversal until the ACC released what he described as a “confusing, at best” statement early Saturday morning.
VIRGINIA TECH PLAYER BLASTS ACC AFTER REVERSED WALK-OFF HAIL MARY: ‘I WANNA SEE CONSEQUENCES’
“I was finally contacted Monday morning, which was a solicited contact, by the head of officials for the ACC,” Pry said Tuesday.
“I asked for an explanation and the video that they viewed that merited overturning the call with indisputable evidence. The explanation was that there was a loose ball that was touched by a Miami defender who was out of bounds. The video showed nothing new, nothing that none of us hadn’t seen already. The words used with me were ‘interpretation’ and ‘hard to find,’ which, to me, neither one aligns with indisputable.”
Pry also asserted that there was an insufficient amount of evidence to support the decision to overturn the initial call.
“I watched the video that they watched. If it was ruled a catch, I don’t see how you overturn it. There’s no evidence. If it was ruled not a catch, I don’t see how you overturn it. You can’t see enough to tell.”
The league “determined that the loose ball was touched by a Miami player while he was out of bounds.”
“During the review process of the last play of the Virginia Tech at Miami game, it was determined that the loose ball was touched by a Miami player while he was out of bounds, which makes it an incomplete pass and immediately ends the play,” the statement from the ACC said.
Virginia Tech quarterback Kyron Drones threw the ball to receiver Da’Quan Felton as the final seconds ticked off the clock during the game Sept. 27. Felton appeared to complete the catch, but the referees later ruled the pass incomplete.
Virginia Tech will look to rebound this weekend when it travels to California for a matchup with Stanford. Miami will also be in the Golden State Saturday for a game against the California Golden Bears.
Miami enters Week 6 with a 5-0 record and climbed the No. 8 spot in the latest AP Top 25 rankings.
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