ESPN Definitely Messed Up The Halftime Scoreboard For UK-Florida, But It's Not Because You Can't Score One Point

Yeah, that wasn't the score at all. It was 24-0, Florida, and we do not know why it said 17-1. However many of you wrote it in claiming that the score was not only incorrect, but necessarily incorrect, because a team could never have one point. Not so. It would take a blocked extra point, a recovery by the defensive team, a run all the way to the opposite endzone, a fumble, a recovery of that fumble by the kicking team, and then a tackle of that player in the opposite endzone towards which the ball was being rushed.

From the trusty Wikipedia, which is very eloquent on this topic and (you can see the cited material here) correct:

College football rules allow either team to score a one-point safety after a touchdown. Say that Team B blocks Team A's extra-point attempt, and a player on Team B picks up the ball on the 1-yard line. Looking for an opening, the player with the ball runs backwards voluntarily into his end zone, where he is tackled. Team A receives one point for the conversion safety, and the score is now 7–0. Team A then kicks off from its own 30-yard line, as after any touchdown. A conversion safety has occurred at least once in the NCAA, in a game between Texas and Texas A&M in 2004. Following the Longhorns TD from a blocked punt, the ensuing PAT was blocked and recovered by a Texas A&M player on the one yard line. The player tried to make a return, but was tackled in his own endzone for a one point safety.

Although exceedingly unlikely, college football's rules also allow the defensive team to score a one-point conversion safety on a PAT or conversion try. One possible scenario: Team B blocks Team A's extra-point attempt, and a player on Team B picks up the loose ball and runs towards the opposite end zone. Before reaching the goal line, he fumbles the ball and it is recovered by a player from Team A, who then voluntarily runs into his own (Team A's) end zone and is tackled. Team B would score one point for the conversion safety and the score would then be 6–1.

That didn't happen in the UK-Florida game, nor has it ever happened. But it's in the rulebook, so it could, and god-willing one day it will. That play sounds like such an amazing mess.

h/t Brandon S.