After Penn State's Controversial Loss, NCAA Expands Replay in Men's Lacrosse

The Lions fell to Duke at the NCAA Championships on a play that wasn't reviewable. It will be next season.

Nearly two months after Penn State's controversial loss to Duke in the NCAA Men's Lacrosse Championships, the NCAA is expanding the use of video review in the game. The NCAA announced Wednesday that the play on which Penn State lost its NCAA semifinal game will be among those reviewable for the 2024 men's lacrosse season.

In late May, Penn State lost to Duke 16-15 when the Blue Devils' Garrett Leadmon stepped into the crease while scoring the sudden-victory goal. The play should not have counted but was not reviewable according to the NCAA's replay rules at the time. Penn State concluded its season at 11-5, having reached the NCAA semifinals for the second time in school history. After the game, Penn State coach Jeff Tambroni said, "There should definitely be a review."

In response, the NCAA Playing Rules Oversight Panel adopted a sweeping series of changes to its policy regarding video review. It added five reviewable plays to the existing list. Among them, replay can be used to determine "if an offensive player was in or landed in the crease before the ball entered the goal.to determine." This addition covers the scenario that occurred at the end of the Penn State-Duke game.

In addition, the updated review rules include coaches challenges until the last four minutes of regulation and "referee discretion," which is available at any point during the game. The updated replay guidelines will be in place for all NCAA games. Previously, video replay was available only during the NCAA championships.

Immediately after the NCAA semifinal in Philadelphia, Tambroni said he had not seen a replay and had "no idea if it was a right call or a wrong call." But Tambroni did address the need for expanded replay.

"There should definitely be a review," Tambroni told reporters at Lincoln Financial Field after the game. "At what point and at what level we implement that, I hope it does go in there at some point. There are plenty of calls missed throughout the course of a lacrosse game. With three extremely capable officials trying to cover 100 yards, it's bound to happen. It certainly was not a malicious call.

"I haven't even seen it, to be honest with you, so I have no idea if it was a right call or a wrong call. It was a call. I think probably the latter of that, yes, there should be [a replay review], especially at a game like this, on that stage. It's available. But at the same time, I recognize that it's not a part of our game, and we understand that we've got to live with the result and just move on."

During the ESPN broadcast, analysts said the lack of replay diminished the thrilling finish. "Controversy will certainly linger from the end of this," ESPN play-by-play announcer Anish Shroff said on the broadcast. "You don’t want that for this sport on this stage, when you have great lacrosse defined by a play like we saw end this game that can’t be reviewed. It's something the rules committee needs to look at in the offseason."

ESPN's Bill Tierney, a former coach at Princeton and Denver, said Penn State played a game "maybe none of us expected" and called for replay to be addressed.

"Our game has got to catch up," Tierney said on the post-game broadcast. "That’s a big-time play and a big-time loss. Obviously Duke gets to move on, but Penn State, which played an amazing game, has to suffer with this for the rest of their lives really."

Fellow analyst Matt Ward noted another controversial play in NCAA tournament history. In the 2019 quarterfinals, Virginia defeated Maryland 13-12 in overtime, tying the game late on a shot that appeared to hit the crossbar but was ruled a goal.

"You have to review a play that ends a game," Ward said on ESPN's post-game show. "You have to at least have that right. ... It's time. It takes away from an amazing game. How, if you're a Penn State player, do you ever get over that?"

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