With 35-33 on the scoreboard, Virginia Tech kicker John Love had three seconds to become the hero. He drilled a 36-yard field goal, and for a moment, it looked perfect as the ball sailed over the left upright. Love celebrated, but the officials ruled it no good. Pitt escaped Lane Stadium with a stunning 35-33 win, sparking immediate backlash from fans.

For Pat Narduzzi, the only thing that matters is the ruling in his team’s favor. After the game, the head coach was asked whether he believed John Love’s final-second field goal was good or not, and Narduzzi didn’t bite his tongue.

“I didn’t know. I had no idea. I couldn’t tell, it was bad angles, obviously the far upright, but it was no good, I can tell you that,” said Pat Narduzzi.

While the Panthers celebrated their victory, fans began wondering whether something had gone wrong behind the scenes. Many watched the play from different angles, convinced that the kick was good and that the referees had made a bad call.

However, one crucial possibility could explain the ruling. The key to the decision is where the ball passes the uprights. If it travels above them, officials must determine whether it remains within the imaginary vertical lines. And that’s the tricky part that might have hurt the Hokies.

The controversy becomes more complicated under the NCAA replay rules, which state that when a field goal travels above the top of the uprights, whether it passed inside or outside them is not reviewable.

Per the NCAA rule book, reviewable scoring plays include: “field goal attempts if and only if the ball is ruled (a) below or above the crossbar or (b) inside or outside the upright when it is lower than the top of the uprights. If the ball is higher than the top of the uprights as it crosses the end line, the play may not be reviewed.”

The debate now boils down to one question: Did the kick actually travel above the upright? It’s a matter of angles, and the television footage makes the call look incredibly close, leaving fans to draw completely different conclusions. But the officials positioned beneath the goalposts ruled the attempt no good. That ruling stood, giving Pitt a 35-33 victory over Virginia Tech.

Speaking to reporters after the game, James Franklin admitted that he couldn’t say for certain whether the kick was good.

“To be honest with you, from my angle, I don’t know,” Franklin said. “I think John Love is the best kicker in the country. I had so much confidence that that thing was going to go through. From my angle, I couldn’t tell you one way or another… At the end of the day, they said it didn’t go through. So everything else doesn’t really matter a whole lot.”

Another major takeaway is the difference in replay technology. Most college football conferences rely on DV Sport, whereas the NFL exclusively uses Hawk-Eye Innovations, Sony’s state-of-the-art replay system.

With the controversy reaching fever pitch, former NFL referee Terry McAulay has stepped in with an explanation, pointing to a major technological gap in college football’s replay system.

“There is literally no camera angle that definitively tells us where the ball is the moment it reaches the plane of the uprights. That’s why this has never been reviewable,” wrote McAulay.

“That being said, the person with the best angle who is standing under the upright and the person standing behind him with the second-best angle tell me the entire ball did not pass between the uprights extended,” he further added.

While something like this might not happen in the NFL, that doesn’t rule out the possibility that the kick was good, and this should be a wake-up call for college football to invest in better technology.