Ed Bilik, secretary-editor of the rules committee, told The Times from his office in Georgia that "interference" by fans or players off the bench must impact play directly to warrant a technical.

Referring to the end-of-overtime chaos that turned an apparent WSU victory into an Oregon win, Bilik said, "The ball was never even taken out of bounds. So how could it interfere with continuous play? Basically, there was no interference in terms of the ball being put into play."
Bilik's comments came in the wake of an "end of the game reminder" he issued this week to NCAA officials and published on the NCAA Web site as a result of the WSU-Oregon controversy.

The first part of that advisory says, "When a delay by a jubilant follower(s) or bench personnel before player activity has been terminated does not prevent the ball from being put in play promptly or does not interfere with continuous play, the delay shall be ignored, order shall be restored and play shall be resumed."

The words "ignored," "restored" and "resumed" were underscored.