You have to remember that from his vantage point, he really had no idea what had happened. Neither did coach Graham. Here are the issues that complicated this.
1. Anderson played with fire in the last few seconds. Too many things can happen when you are trying to center the ball. He got greedy and he knew it. He knew it was primarily his own fault for not spiking the ball and kicking the fg.
2. The qb took a knee and bounced up so quickly, along with being bumped by his own lineman, that no one on the field sideline, or in the press box saw it. The only person that saw it was the referee.
3. The qb laid the ball on the field instead of giving it to the ref.
4. The referee had some difficulty with getting the ASU player off the ball because the QB was in his face arguing.
5. The umpire did not see the kneel, he could not have, so for all he knew the ball had been fumbled. He was trying to sort that out in his mind.
6. The defensive players did the right thing. If there is a remote possibility that it is a fumble, you jump on the ball. You could argue that the whistle had blown, but at the end of the game with all that noise, whistles are sometimes hard to hear, the ref had not placed the ball, it was just laying there.
7. Wisconsin had no time outs. For the refs to stop play in order to set the ball would be calling a virtual time out for Wisconsin. As long as the ball is reasonably set, no stop in play should be called.
8. No one was looking at the clock as events occured, so they could not know when the qb took a knee, be even then, the clock is not supposed to stop.
9. The reason that the WI team was not being urgent was they thought they had called time, and the clock was not running. They were not granted a timeout that they did not have.
10. The WI players were not looking at the clock. If they had jumped up to the line and got in position to snap the ball, they might have been able to do so.
11. I have no explanation for the ref holding up his hand. Even then, they only lost about a second and the WI qb was not paying attention and was not in position at that moment to take a snap even if the umpire had not held up his hand. There would have not been enough time for a spike which requires 3 seconds by regulation I believe.
The refs probably should have taken their time at the end of the game, reviewed the play, and came up with an answer. But I think the ref consultant for ESPN said that the play was not reviewable.
Since none of them could look at a replay, they just let events stand.
The WI coach made mistakes, the WI qb made mistakes, the WI offense did not pay attention to the clock, the refs made mistakes.
The only group on that field at that moment that were not making mistakes was the ASU defense. If I am a coach, I want my player to jump on that ball every time.
