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# The 12 Craziest Endings in College Football History, Ranked
- URL: https://www.grumpybuck.com/the-12-craziest-endings-in-college-football-history-ranked/
- Published: 2026-09-16T14:55:51.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-16T14:55:51.000Z
- Description: The Kick Six, The Play, Hail Flutie, eight laterals at Duke, a fifth down that decided a national title, and four things everyone believes about these endings that aren't true.
- Author: Brad Riddell
- Tags: Sports History, Top 10, Football, College Football

College football is the only sport where the last play can be a lateral, a marching band, a fifth down, or a 100-yard sprint by a cornerback who was on the field because the other coach asked for one more second. The NFL has famous finishes. College football has finishes that shouldn't be legal, and a few that weren't.

One ground rule: this ranks **endings**, not games. That matters, because the lists you've seen rank games, and a great game can end in a perfectly ordinary way. Here are the twelve craziest, by chaos, stakes, and how long people have kept arguing.

## 12\. Notre Dame 10, Michigan State 10 (Nov. 19, 1966)

The anti-ending, and the only entry here where nothing happened at all.

![Notre Dame and Michigan State players walking off together, and the Chicago Tribune of Nov. 20, 1966.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/6a/b0/6ab0eb2f-edcf-411e-aaff-39e6be3d4e39/content/images/2026/09/e12-nd-msu.jpg)

Notre Dame and Michigan State players walking off together, and the Chicago Tribune of Nov. 20, 1966.

No. 1 Notre Dame and No. 2 Michigan State, both unbeaten, met in East Lansing in front of 80,011 in the most hyped regular-season game anyone had seen. Notre Dame got the ball at its own 30 with 1:24 left, ran six plays, five of them into the line, and let the clock die. Ara Parseghian wasn't going to lose the No. 1 ranking on a desperation throw with a backup quarterback, his starter having been knocked out in the first quarter by Bubba Smith.

The country was furious anyway. Notre Dame still finished No. 1 in both polls. Sixty years ago this November, and it remains the loudest silence in the sport, and the reason lists like this one exist: college football fans will forgive almost anything except a coach who declines the ending.

## 11\. Auburn 17, Alabama 16 (Dec. 2, 1972)

Punt Bama Punt. No. 2 Alabama was 10-0 and favored by two touchdowns, and led 16-3 late with the ball. Then Auburn's Bill Newton blocked a punt and David Langner ran it back 25 yards for a touchdown. About two minutes later, Newton blocked another punt, and Langner ran that one back 20 yards too.

![Legion Field, Dec. 2, 1972, with the ball loose on the ground, and the Mobile Register the next morning.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/6a/b0/6ab0eb2f-edcf-411e-aaff-39e6be3d4e39/content/images/2026/09/e11-punt-bama-punt.jpg)

Legion Field, Dec. 2, 1972, with the ball loose on the ground, and the Mobile Register the next morning.

Same blocker. Same returner. Same ending, twice. Auburn scored no offensive points in the fourth quarter and won by one, which was possible only because Alabama had had an extra point blocked earlier in the game. The phrase is still on t-shirts in two states.

## 10\. Colorado 33, Missouri 31 (Oct. 6, 1990)

The Fifth Down. Colorado ran a series of plays at the Missouri goal line in the last minute while the chain crew, distracted in part by paramedics performing CPR on a fan in the stands, never flipped the down marker. Colorado spiked it on what the marker called first down, got stuffed twice, spiked it again, and then scored on a fifth down with two seconds left.

![Missouri students pulling down the goalposts with the scoreboard reading 33-31 and no time left. Beside it, the Columbia Daily Tribune of Oct. 7, 1990: ](https://storage.ghost.io/c/6a/b0/6ab0eb2f-edcf-411e-aaff-39e6be3d4e39/content/images/2026/09/e10-fifth-down.jpg)

Missouri students pulling down the goalposts with the scoreboard reading 33-31 and no time left. Beside it, the Columbia Daily Tribune of Oct. 7, 1990: "Loss enrages fans." Its sidebar, headed "CU's Five Downs," itemizes all five.

The Big Eight confirmed the error, suspended the crew, and let the result stand, because there was no mechanism to reverse a finished game. Colorado went on to win the AP national championship, by which measure it is the most consequential officiating failure in the sport's history. And there is still no agreement on whether the winning quarterback sneak actually crossed the goal line. Two newspapers ran two photographs and reached two conclusions. There was no replay.

## 9\. Ohio State 31, Miami 24, 2OT (Jan. 3, 2003)

The Fiesta Bowl, for the national title, and the only ending here that arrived after everyone had gone home.

![The yellow flag lying on the orange turf. Miami is already celebrating at the left; Ohio State's Chris Gamble, No. 7, the receiver on the play, stands alone in the end zone. The Chillicothe Gazette, Jan. 4, 2003.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/6a/b0/6ab0eb2f-edcf-411e-aaff-39e6be3d4e39/content/images/2026/09/e09-fiesta.jpg)

The yellow flag lying on the orange turf. Miami is already celebrating at the left; Ohio State's Chris Gamble, No. 7, the receiver on the play, stands alone in the end zone. The Chillicothe Gazette, Jan. 4, 2003.

Miami had won 34 straight. In the first overtime, Ohio State faced fourth-and-3 in the end zone, the pass fell incomplete, the line judge signaled it, and Miami's sideline emptied. Sean Taylor threw his helmet in the air. Then, four or five seconds later, field judge Terry Porter's flag came in from behind the play: pass interference. Ohio State got a first down, scored, and won it in the second overtime.

Nobody has ever conceded it was wrong. The Big Ten's supervisor of officials backed the call and downgraded only the timing of it. That's the part Miami fans can't get past, 23 years on: not that the flag was thrown, but that it was thrown late and then defended.

## 8\. Auburn 43, Georgia 38 (Nov. 16, 2013)

The Prayer at Jordan-Hare. Georgia had just taken its first lead of the game with 1:49 to go. Auburn faced fourth-and-18 from its own 27\. Nick Marshall threw it up, two Georgia defensive backs both went for the interception, and the ball glanced off their hands to Ricardo Louis, who caught it in stride and ran 73 yards into the end zone.

![Auburn celebrating in the end zone at Jordan-Hare, and the Atlanta Constitution of Nov. 17, 2013.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/6a/b0/6ab0eb2f-edcf-411e-aaff-39e6be3d4e39/content/images/2026/09/e08-prayer.jpg)

Auburn celebrating in the end zone at Jordan-Hare, and the Atlanta Constitution of Nov. 17, 2013.

Auburn called the play "Little Rock." Gus Malzahn had drawn it up as a high school coach in Arkansas in the 1990s. On any other year it's the craziest thing that happens in college football. Hold that thought.

## 7\. Michigan State 27, Michigan 23 (Oct. 17, 2015)

Ten seconds left, Michigan ahead, Michigan punting, which is the safest thing a football team can do.

![The snap coming loose, and the Detroit Free Press sports front of Oct. 18, 2015.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/6a/b0/6ab0eb2f-edcf-411e-aaff-39e6be3d4e39/content/images/2026/09/e07-michigan-punt.jpg)

The snap coming loose, and the Detroit Free Press sports front of Oct. 18, 2015.

The snap came in low, Blake O'Neill couldn't handle it, and Jalen Watts-Jackson caught the ball out of the air and ran it 38 yards as the clock hit zero. A crowd of 111,740 made a sound people still describe as a vacuum. Watts-Jackson broke and dislocated his hip in the celebration pile and had three hours of surgery the next day, at a University of Michigan hospital.

O'Neill, an Australian punter in his only season in America, got death threats serious enough that Michigan's athletic director published an open letter asking people to stop. That's why this sits at 7 and not higher. The play is perfect. What came after it isn't funny.

## 6\. LSU 33, Kentucky 30 (Nov. 9, 2002)

The Bluegrass Miracle. Kentucky had kicked the go-ahead field goal, fans were coming over the walls, the fireworks had already been set off, and Guy Morriss had taken the Gatorade bath **before the final snap**. LSU had two seconds and 74 yards of grass.

![The scoreboard reads Kentucky 30, LSU 33. A Kentucky player is on the ground and someone in purple and gold is already celebrating. The Daily Advertiser, Nov. 10, 2002.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/6a/b0/6ab0eb2f-edcf-411e-aaff-39e6be3d4e39/content/images/2026/09/e06-bluegrass.jpg)

The scoreboard reads Kentucky 30, LSU 33\. A Kentucky player is on the ground and someone in purple and gold is already celebrating. The Daily Advertiser, Nov. 10, 2002.

Marcus Randall heaved it. The ball came down in a crowd near the goal line, got tipped, and dropped to Devery Henderson, who caught it off his shoetops and walked in untouched. Kentucky's celebration is still going on in the background of the replay.

The best part almost nobody knows: LSU's radio voice, Jim Hawthorne, called the wrong man. He shouted the name of a defensive back who wasn't even on the field. He re-recorded the call afterward, which is why the version you've heard may not be the one that aired.

## 5\. Boise State 43, Oklahoma 42, OT (Jan. 1, 2007)

The Fiesta Bowl, and the only ending in the sport's history that produced three trick plays and an engagement.

![The Statue of Liberty two-point conversion, and the Idaho Statesman of Jan. 2, 2007.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/6a/b0/6ab0eb2f-edcf-411e-aaff-39e6be3d4e39/content/images/2026/09/e05-boise.jpg)

The Statue of Liberty two-point conversion, and the Idaho Statesman of Jan. 2, 2007.

Boise State, a heavy underdog at 12-0, blew a late lead on a pick-six, then faced fourth-and-18 from the Oklahoma 50 with 18 seconds left and ran a hook-and-ladder: Jared Zabransky to Drisan James, lateral to Jerard Rabb, 50 yards, touchdown with seven seconds on the clock. Oklahoma scored first in overtime. Boise State answered on fourth down with a halfback pass, then declined the extra point that would have extended the game and went for two with the Statue of Liberty. Ian Johnson took the behind-the-back handoff and walked in untouched.

Then he went to the sideline and proposed to Boise State cheerleader Chrissy Popadics on live television. She said yes. They married that July.

## 4\. Miami 30, Duke 27 (Oct. 31, 2015)

Eight laterals. Not the Cal-Stanford five. Eight.

![Corn Elder, No. 29, during the sequence of laterals, and the Greensboro News & Record of Nov. 1, 2015.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/6a/b0/6ab0eb2f-edcf-411e-aaff-39e6be3d4e39/content/images/2026/09/e04-miami-duke.jpg)

Corn Elder, No. 29, during the sequence of laterals, and the Greensboro News & Record of Nov. 1, 2015.

Duke had gone ahead with six seconds left. Miami fielded the kickoff with the clock at zero and threw the ball backwards across the field eight times, Duke tacklers hitting Miami players who had already pitched it, until Corn Elder ran the final stretch into an end zone that already had Duke's band in it.

The review took nine minutes. Afterward the ACC published a list of four errors on the play, the first of which was that replay should have ruled Miami's Mark Walton down — which by itself ends the game and gives Duke the win. The conference suspended **ten people** for two games: all eight on-field officials, the replay official, and the replay coordinator. The touchdown stood anyway. Duke's coach, David Cutcliffe, said there should be a mechanism to reverse a game like that, and there isn't, and there still isn't.

It is the only miracle on this list that the people in charge have admitted was not a miracle.

## 3\. Boston College 47, Miami 45 (Nov. 23, 1984)

Flutie. Six seconds on the clock at the snap, none at the catch. Forty-eight official yards, about 63 in the air, into a stiff wind at the open end of the Orange Bowl, from a quarterback listed at 5-foot-9, to Gerard Phelan, who was his roommate, lying on his back in the end zone.

![Boston College celebrating at the Orange Bowl while a Miami player stays on his knees, and the Boston Globe of Nov. 24, 1984.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/6a/b0/6ab0eb2f-edcf-411e-aaff-39e6be3d4e39/content/images/2026/09/e03-flutie.jpg)

Boston College celebrating at the Orange Bowl while a Miami player stays on his knees, and the Boston Globe of Nov. 24, 1984.

It's the most replayed pass in the sport's history. Bernie Kosar had just thrown for 447 yards and put Miami ahead with 28 seconds left, and almost nobody remembers that, because of what happened next.

What it did not do is win Doug Flutie the Heisman Trophy. The voting had closed before kickoff. ESPN and Sports Illustrated have both printed otherwise.

## 2\. California 25, Stanford 20 (Nov. 20, 1982)

The Play. Four seconds, a kickoff, five laterals, and a marching band.

![Kevin Moen, No. 26, in the end zone surrounded by the Stanford band. Beside it, the Sacramento Union of Nov. 21, 1982: ](https://storage.ghost.io/c/6a/b0/6ab0eb2f-edcf-411e-aaff-39e6be3d4e39/content/images/2026/09/e02-the-play.jpg)

Kevin Moen, No. 26, in the end zone surrounded by the Stanford band. Beside it, the Sacramento Union of Nov. 21, 1982: "A wild and crazy Big Game finish."

Stanford, with John Elway, had converted a fourth-and-17 from its own 13 and kicked a go-ahead field goal with four seconds left, then drew a 15-yard penalty for celebrating on the bench, which is the only reason Cal received the ball near midfield. Cal threw it backwards five times, one of them out of the grasp of a player whose knee looked awfully close to the ground, while Stanford's band, believing the game had ended, walked onto the field. Kevin Moen finished the return by running through the trombone section and flattening Gary Tyrrell, who has now spent more than forty years as the most famous trombone player alive.

Joe Starkey's radio call is the most excited piece of audio in American sport. Elway, who never got to play in a bowl game because of it, called it an insult to college football. Neither team was ranked. It didn't matter and it still doesn't.

## 1\. Auburn 34, Alabama 28 (Nov. 30, 2013)

The Kick Six.

No. 1 Alabama, No. 4 Auburn, tied game, Iron Bowl, one second left, and a national championship three-peat on the line. Nick Saban had just challenged the spot to get that second put back on the clock. He sent Adam Griffith out to try a 57-yard field goal.

![Auburn's sideline as Chris Davis comes down it, and the Birmingham News of Dec. 1, 2013.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/6a/b0/6ab0eb2f-edcf-411e-aaff-39e6be3d4e39/content/images/2026/09/e01-kick-six.jpg)

Auburn's sideline as Chris Davis comes down it, and the Birmingham News of Dec. 1, 2013.

It came down short. Chris Davis caught it nine yards deep in his own end zone and ran it back **109 yards** along the sideline while every Alabama player who might have stopped him was blocking somewhere in the middle of the field. Rod Bramblett, on Auburn's radio network, said it twice: "Davis is gonna run it all the way back! Auburn's gonna win the football game!" On CBS, Verne Lundquist said "Touchdown, Auburn! An answered prayer!" and then said nothing for a minute and twenty-one seconds.

Here's the detail that makes the whole thing absurd. The Prayer at Jordan-Hare, at No. 8 on this list, happened in the same stadium two weeks earlier, called by the same announcer, in front of an announced crowd of **87,451**. The Kick Six drew an announced crowd of **87,451**. The same building did that twice in a fortnight to the same number of people.

Highest possible stakes, the biggest rivalry in the sport, a coach's own decision handing the other team the football, and a play that had never decided a game like that before. Everything on this list is crazy. This one had all of it at once.

## Four Things Everyone Believes About These Endings That Aren't True

**The Hail Mary won Flutie the Heisman.** Voting closed before the game started.

**Chris Davis's return was 100 yards, because that's the maximum.** There is no such rule on a missed field goal. It was 109.

**Stanford was penalized for the band being on the field.** The penalty was for Stanford's bench celebrating the field goal, and it was assessed before the kickoff.

**Sports Illustrated's headline on the 1966 tie was "Tie One for the Gipper."** The headline was "An Upside-Down Game." The famous phrase is buried in Dan Jenkins's opening paragraph.

## The Ones That Just Missed

**Texas 41, USC 38 (Jan. 4, 2006):** Vince Young on fourth-and-5 with 19 seconds left, in Keith Jackson's last game. Sports Illustrated ranks it the greatest game ever played (and we've [**written about it**](https://www.grumpybuck.com/every-time-texas-has-beaten-the-no-1-team-in-the-country-all-six-ranked/)).

**Georgia Tech 22, Florida State 16 (Oct. 24, 2015):** a blocked 56-yard field goal returned 78 yards on the final play — and it happened on the Saturday **between** the Michigan punt and the Miami laterals. Three straight October Saturdays, three endings like that. 

**Colorado 27, Michigan 26 (Sept. 24, 1994):** Kordell Stewart's Hail Mary, tipped by his own receiver, caught by Michael Westbrook. 

**Appalachian State 34, Michigan 32 (Sept. 1, 2007):** a blocked field goal with six seconds left to finish the biggest upset ever played. 

**Central Michigan 30, Oklahoma State 27 (Sept. 10, 2016):** a Hail Mary and a lateral on an untimed down that, by rule, should never have been granted. 

**Trinity 28, Millsaps 24 (Oct. 27, 2007):** fifteen laterals over 62 seconds, in Division III, and every bit as real. 

**Alabama 25, Auburn 23 (Nov. 30, 1985):** Van Tiffin's 52-yarder as time expired, on the same calendar date as the Kick Six, 28 years earlier. 

**Nebraska 30, Miami 31 (Jan. 2, 1984):** Tom Osborne went for two instead of the tie and the title.

**Which ending did we rank too low? Comments below.**