George Schroeder

USA TODAY Sports

A Big 12 replay official reviewed a controversial no-call in Texas’ victory against Notre Dame and determined it was not targeting, according to the league’s supervisor of officials.

Texas defensive back DeShon Elliott’s helmet-to-helmet collision with Notre Dame’s Torii Hunter Jr. left the wide receiver lying motionless in the end zone for several minutes Sunday evening. The officiating crew did not throw a flag. With a rule change implemented for this season, targeting can be called by replay review officials, but it wasn’t.

Walt Anderson, the Big 12’s supervisor of officials, said the replay officials did not believe the hit rose to the level of applying a call from the booth.

“The play was reviewed and replay did not feel the action warranted an egregious foul, which is the standard to be applied for replay involvement in targeting fouls that are not called on the field,” Anderson said in a statement supplied to USA TODAY Sports from the Big 12.

Rogers Redding, the secretary-rules editor of the Football Rules Committee, said the intent of the rule change, adopted last winter by the NCAA Football Rules Committee, is to call targeting from the replay booth only in the instance of “clear and obvious” missed calls by the on-field officiating crew, “if it’s something that just 100 percent absolutely should have been called.”

“You might have a targeting foul and have a little question about it, then they’re gonna stay out of it,” Redding told USA TODAY Sports. “The change is to allow the replay booth to come down and, so to speak, create the foul from the booth if they deem appropriate. Obviously they didn’t in this case.”

The on-field officiating crew for the game, which was played in Austin, was from the Atlantic Coast Conference. The replay officials were from the Big 12. It’s a fairly standard arrangement in non-conference games. Officials are determined by the schools’ contract, with on-field crews often from the visiting team’s conference, but replay crews are typically supplied by the home team’s conference.

The ACC declined to comment Tuesday.

On the play, which occurred late in the third quarter, Hunter appeared set to catch a touchdown pass that would have given Notre Dame the lead in a back-and-forth contest Texas eventually won in two overtimes. But Elliott, a safety, closed quickly and delivered a hard hit.

Hunter suffered a concussion. His status for Notre Dame’s game Saturday against Nevada is uncertain.

On Monday, Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly said after reviewing video, the ACC told him it was “most likely” targeting.

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Redding said he had seen the play. He declined to give an opinion, except to say there should have been an official review. The review occurred while Hunter was being tended to on the field; Redding said it would have been appropriate to officially halt play and to announce the play was under review.

“I think the replay official should have stopped the game to review the play,” he said.

Redding said the play was the only one he saw in the first weekend of the season in which the replay booth’s new flexibility to make a targeting call could have been applied.

“This new rule has not been used yet at all,” he said.

Last winter, Redding called allowing the replay official to call targeting “a slippery slope,” something the Rules Committee had reluctance about, but adopted in the interest of player safety. He said after reviewing the 2015 season, he’d seen only two plays where targeting would have been called from the replay booth if the rule had been in place. And he added that replay officials would only be expected to make a call with “the one (missed call) that leaps out and smacks you in the mouth.”