The Ohio State Buckeyes may have been overtaken by Oregon's Dan Lanning in Week 7, and his smarts could create a domino effect across college football.

With 10 seconds left on the clock in the fourth quarter of Saturday's contest, the Ducks head coach called a timeout. Surprisingly, Oregon received a penalty for having twelve men on the field despite a timeout. But Lanning told reporters Monday that the penalty was planned because it prevented the Buckeyes from making a big play while also having a four-second lead.

“We spent an inordinate amount of time on situations. There are some situations that don’t come up very often in college football, but we obviously worked on this one, so you can see the result.”

– Dan Lanning

While Lanning is receiving praise for his strategic play, college football insider Ross Dellenger reported Tuesday that the NCAA is considering some sort of in-season action to address the penalty.

“Steve Shaw, the NCAA Secretary of State's Rules Editor, told Yahoo Sports on Tuesday that the NCAA Football Rules Committee is actively “engaging” in reviewing the game for possible action. The Big Ten refereeing staff handled the game appropriately, Shaw said, but the rules committee is discussing a way to approach the game.

– Ross Dellenger

Dellenger also emphasized that interpreting rules during the season is not common. However, it could happen this year because of the 12-man penalty.

“Mid-season interpretations of the rules are not common, but they have occurred in the past on similar plays that violated a component of the Rules Committee – that a penalty should not benefit the penalized team. The goal of any interpretation is to deter coaches from further exploiting the rules, which can only be changed during a lengthy offseason process.”

– Ross Dellenger

Ohio State was unfortunately the team that had to endure this gap, but the Buckeyes could have better days ahead in the rest of the NCAA.