Fan ranking of season's most disputed calls puts Tennessee's onside kick against Texas seventh
A fan-driven ranking of the most controversial officiating decisions from the first half of the 2026 college football season places a play from Tennessee's game against Texas among the ten worst. On3 asked followers on X for submissions through Week 7, narrowed the responses to ten, and published the list heading into the penultimate weekend of October. Clock management loomed over much of the discussion, alongside a disputed pass interference no-call and a holding call that drew public criticism from a head coach.
Tennessee's entry, at No. 7, came during the Volunteers' late push against then-No. 1 Texas. The Vols recovered a successful onside drop kick as they tried to complete a comeback, but the SEC later acknowledged the play had been officiated incorrectly. A free kick on a kickoff is supposed to be taken from the kicking team's 35-yard line, while Tennessee's attempt came from the 34. According to the conference, that should have drawn a five-yard penalty against Tennessee and a replay of the down, even though Texas ultimately held on to avoid the upset.
The rest of the list ranged across the country. It included Michigan receiving an extra second and Notre Dame being denied one it should have had late against BYU, a point the Big 12 later conceded, with replays suggesting a second remained when the Irish's final pass fell incomplete. It also cited an incorrectly spotted two-point try for Oregon against UCLA that the Big Ten admitted was placed at the 1.5-yard line instead of the half-yard line, a Michigan State onside kick recovery wiped out by an offsides call that a television rules analyst said was wrong, and a roughing-the-passer penalty against Duke that helped Georgia Tech hand the Blue Devils their first loss.
Other entries involved a Florida State Hail Mary touchdown erased by holding in a double-overtime loss to Miami, a Kentucky tush-push touchdown against LSU that Lane Kiffin argued should have been blown dead for stopped forward progress, and a TCU unsportsmanlike conduct flag in the season opener in Ireland that was followed two plays later by a fumble. Together, the cases were less about a single conference than about plays that changed field position, possessions, or final results in close games.
For Tennessee, the ranking is a reminder that the Texas finish remains part of the national conversation weeks later. The Vols did not benefit from a correct ruling in the moment, by the SEC's own account, and the recovery itself did not change the outcome. What it did do was leave a late-game special teams play open to second-guessing, on a list built precisely from the calls fans have not stopped debating.