Report: Big Ten chief says official goofed in Spartans-Wolverines game

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany said a replay official mistakenly awarded Michigan a touchdown during its game against Michigan State, the Detroit Free Press reported.

"The people in the replay booth made a mistake," Delany said at the conference's basketball media day Sunday. "It wasn't a mistake of judgment, it was a mistake of an application of the rule. They applied the wrong rule and they applied it improperly."

Delany says a replay official's decision to give on Saturday was "not acceptable" and said discipline could follow.

Michigan's Brandon Minor leaped to make a catch and knocked over the pylon at the front corner of the end zone on his way down, causing the on-field referee to rule the play incomplete.

The replay official overturned the call, ruling that because Minor's foot hit the pylon, it was a touchdown. According to NCAA rules, however, an airborne player who touches a pylon is considered out of bounds.

The first-quarter touchdown tied the score at 7 but didn't affect the result of the game, which Michigan State won 35-21.

"I expect more from them than that," Delany said. "You can understand a mistake of judgment on the field, and you can even understand possibly not getting the standard right because we want indisputable video evidence that a play is wrong. But to apply the wrong rule to a situation is not acceptable to me."

After the game, referee David Witvoet repeated the rule about an airborne player touching the pylon and deferred further comment to the Big Ten.