Just another wild weekend in college football

The final score of this column about fantastic weekend finishes was 17-14 until the Pac-12 office, two hours after deadline, revised it to 23-14.

If only Notre Dame had the ability to redraft its ending at Michigan, or the Big East office could intervene on behalf of Louisville versus Florida International.

Rice defeated Purdue, 24-22. The Big Ten reportedly wants that changed to Purdue having the 24.

It usually takes three weeks in college football for all of the candy to spill out of the pinata — this year it took two.

It was as if the pigskin gods said, “Stop writing about Miami, full cost of attendance and expansion,” and take a deep whiff of what makes this sport so wonderful.

Any day Las Vegas has to pay off both ends of a ticket is a great one, so long as your USC-Utah betting slip isn’t in shreds on a casino floor.

Week 2 of the college football season seemed more like a second round of the NCAA basketball tournament — there were buzzer-beaters everywhere.

USC, Michigan, Arizona State, Auburn, Rice — are we missing anyone? — all clinched victory on the last play.

For every boring, predictable Wisconsin wipeout of Oregon State, there was a bedlam finish involving Missouri and Kansas. Missouri lost a heartbreaker to Arizona State, and Kansas nipped Northern Illinois in Lawrence with nine seconds left.

Some games were more exciting than they should have been . . . right, UCLA? The San Jose State Spartans, down here for a paycheck, almost checked out with a stunning victory. It was a 17-17 game late before UCLA pulled away.

Instead of stabilizing UCLA’s quarterback situation with a dominating performance, Richard Brehaut let Kevin Prince back in the competition for next weekend’s game against Texas. The only quarterback situation more befuddling than UCLA’s might be Texas’.

Let’s attempt to rank a few of these close weekend encounters:

1: Michigan 35, Notre Dame 31. The first night game at Michigan Stadium was an instant classic. Denard Robinson’s 16-yard scoring pass to Roy Roundtree with two seconds left-handed the Irish a second devastating defeat. How do we know?

“It’s devastating,” Notre Dame receiver Michael Floyd said.

Robinson crept up everyone’s Heisman Trophy list by passing for 338 yards while also rushing for 108.

A crowd of 114,805 witnessed the excitement in a hallowed proving ground. For context, the game outdrew UCLA’s home game at the fabled Rose Bowl by 72,120.

Notre Dame, expected to compete for a BCS bowl this year, is 0-2 with Michigan State up next.

“We’re not good enough,” Irish Coach Brian Kelly said. No one argued.

2: USC 17, Utah 14 and . . . USC 23, Utah 14. This was as crazy as it gets. USC returned a blocked field-goal attempt for a touchdown as time expired to preserve victory against Utah in the first game in Pacific 12 Conference history.

The final stat book decreed the final score 17-14, Torin Harris’ dramatic touchdown scamper negated by an excessive celebration penalty — or not.

Two hours later, the Pac-12 reinstated Harris’ score.

What the league had here, as they said in “Cool Hand Luke,” was failure to communicate.

At first it was thought that perhaps the score was snuffed by the new rule that can take points off the board if a player celebrates before reaching the end zone. Harris, though, did not do that.

In fact, officials called unsportsmanlike conduct on USC’s sideline players, who converged en masse onto the field as Harris was in mid-return. That’s a dead-ball penalty. Since time had expired, the game was over and the touchdown counted.

That message, however, never made it to the press box.

“We will make the appropriate adjustments to improve communication . . .” Tony Corrente, Pac-12 coordinator of football officiating, clarified in a statement Sunday.

This probably isn’t good news for the league’s longtime Pony Express rider.

3. Auburn 41, Mississippi State 34. Heart-pounding victory on the Plains was preserved when Ryan Smith stuffed Mississippi State quarterback Chris Relf at the goal line on the final play. Auburn, defending national champion, has won its last 10 games decided by eight points or fewer.

“There is something to be said for knowing that you can fight down to the end when it doesn’t look good,” Tigers Coach Gene Chizik said.

Auburn sure is resilient. The school’s famous eagle, “Spirit,” survived a crash into a luxury-box window on the traditional pregame flight to the field.

4. Arizona State 37, Missouri 30 (OT).This Friday fright night game was beyond ugly, with the schools combining for 23 penalties for 224 yards, but it featured a bizarre finish. Missouri kicker Grant Ressel lined up for what would have been the game-winning 48-yard field goal when he was iced, twice, by timeouts called by his own coach.

Arizona State’s well-earned reputation for dumb penalties convinced Gary Pinkel (twice) to try to bait the Sun Devils into an offside call.

“We tried to get five more yards,” Pinkel explained.

Ressel hooked his attempt and Arizona State won in overtime.

5. Ohio State 27, Toledo 22. The Rockets fell 17 yards short in the end of pulling off one of the shockers of the century when you realize Ohio State is 43-0-1 against schools from Ohio since a 7-6 loss to Oberlin in 1921.

Maybe your school had a greater escape.

South Carolina won a three-point thriller at Georgia.

Vanderbilt rallied from 21-14 down to beat Connecticut. Justin Allen’s blocked field-goal attempt as time ran out secured Rice’s two-point win over Purdue. Iowa State shocked Iowa in triple overtime. California needed overtime to escape Colorado. Texas survived Brigham Young, by a point, in Austin.

Washington, 0-12 in 2008, is 2-0 after holding off Hawaii in Seattle, or was it Seattle in Hawaii?

It was a statement weekend for the Pac-12, um, office.

For others, it was all about the endgame.

chris.dufresen@latimes.com