Pitt Wins 35-33 at Virginia Tech as Ruling on Love's 36-Yard Kick Stands

Virginia Tech kicker John Love's 36-yard attempt against Pitt was ruled a miss, giving the Panthers a 35-33 win and raising questions about what replay can settle.

Friday night in Blacksburg came down to a single kick. Virginia Tech sent John Love out for a 36-yard attempt that, if successful, would have flipped the outcome in the Hokies' favor, but the officials judged the try a miss. That ruling held up, and Pitt departed with a 35-33 victory.

Love behaved as though he had converted, and the replay offered on the ESPN telecast appeared to back him up. The uncertainty involved the ball's position relative to the left post. At no point did viewers receive an angle from underneath the goalposts that conclusively showed whether the kick stayed inside.

That missing evidence decided everything. Replay can overturn an on-field ruling only when video delivers conclusive proof, and none existed here. The judgment of the official working the goalpost, a miss, therefore remained the call of record.

James Franklin, addressing reporters after the final whistle, conceded that his vantage point gave him no answer. He described Love as the premier kicker in the nation and said he felt certain the try would go through. In the end, he reasoned, the officials said it did not, and nothing beyond that mattered much.

For anyone wondering whether the kick could simply have been re-examined, the NCAA rule book draws tight limits. Review is restricted to whether the ball passed above or below the crossbar, and to whether it ran inside or outside the post while below the top of the uprights. Once the ball passes the end line higher than the top of the uprights, the play is off limits to review entirely.

The episode also exposed a hardware divide between the professional and college games. Per the report, most college football conferences rely on DV Sport for replay, while the NFL works exclusively with Hawk-Eye Innovations, a Sony division described as cutting-edge. Among the larger lessons of the night, according to the report, was how far apart the two levels sit in replay capability.

Terry McAulay, who spent years as an NFL referee, offered his assessment on X after the game. No camera, he wrote, can definitively locate the ball at the exact moment it reaches the posts, which is why these kicks have never been reviewable in the first place. Even so, he pointed out, the official stationed directly beneath the upright, holding the best vantage point available, and the official behind him both saw the whole ball fail to clear the space between the extended posts.

The report closed with a split verdict on the two leagues. An ending like this one, it argued, could not occur in the NFL. College football, on the other hand, now faces an issue that may demand serious work to resolve.