Weird Moments in Big Ten Football History #1: Bret Bielema Blows Up Rule 3-2-5-e, 2006

FanHouse is counting down the ten best, ten worst, and ten weirdest moments in Big Ten football history.

It was a stupid rule, and everybody knew it was a stupid rule.

Rule 3-2-5-e went into effect for the 2006 college football season. The rule required that, on kickoffs, the game clock would start when the kicker made contact with the ball. (The old rule was that the clock started when the receiver touched the ball; on touchbacks, the clock didn't move at all.) The whole point of this rule was to speed up college football games, because as we all know, the biggest problem with college football is that the games just aren't over soon enough. That's why tens of thousands gather in stadiums and millions watch on TV, just so they can all share the same thought: Hurry up.

The rule was a blatant sop to the real power in college football: the television rights holders. They're the ones who want the games to fit into neat timeslots, lest they have to give money back to the advertisers because the commercials for the new Bacon-Looped Cheesy Ranch Chicken Meatball Wrap aired during the fourth quarter of the East Carolina-Duke game instead of the first quarter of Auburn-LSU, like the account executive promised.

Fortunately, Bret Bielema was there to save college football from itself.

Bielema was in his first year coaching the Badgers. When Wisconsin scored a touchdown with 23 seconds left in the first half, Bielema decided it was time for Rule 3-2-5-e to get "blowed up real good," as they say. He had players go offsides on two consecutive kickoff attempts, taking the remaining 23 seconds off the clock and keeping Penn State's offense off the field.

Supposedly, the referees were to hand out unsportsmanlike conduct penalties for a deliberate offsides in such a situation. But how do you prove that somebody went offsides on purpose? And, at any rate, the game was played in Madison. It's hard to imagine making a call like that against the home team.

As you might imagine, Joe Paterno wasn't too happy about Bielema's gambit. It wasn't very sportsmanlike, but let's face facts. The rule needed to go, and it's not like the 2006 Nittany Lions (who finished 8th in the conference in total offense) were going to move the ball 60-80 yards in 23 seconds anyway.

A humbled NCAA rescinded 3-2-5-e the following offseason, to the gratitude of football fans everywhere. It's a good thing Bielema was smart enough to recognize he had the perfect opportunity to show the world just how stupid 3-2-5-e was.

(Author's note: While the best and worst moments lists were in order of their goodness or badness, the weird moments list is in no particular order. Weird is weird; why try to rank it?)