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To say the ending of the Wisconsin versus Arizona State game was controversial would be an understatement. Following is a breakdown of several important aspects of the final wild 18 seconds.

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The previous play, a pass from Stave to Abbrederis, ended with the clock stopped at 18 seconds. Here, the Badgers are about to snap the ball on the fateful final play.

UW quarterback Joel Stave takes the snap and moves to his left to get in better position for a field goal attempt. He takes a knee with 16 seconds left and in the audio from the live broadcast, the officials can be heard blowing their whistles to mark the play dead.

Some have claimed that Stave did not actually take a knee (which doesn't matter anyway as rules state act of simulating taking a knee is same as actually doing it). To clarify, below is proof of Stave taking a knee from a different angle.

After taking a knee, which should have stopped the play, Stave placed the ball on the ground. At the 12 second mark, an Arizona State defender jumped on the ball.

After jumping on the ball at 12 seconds, the Arizona State defender gets up and lets the official take the ball. 

NCAA rule Article 2, a(8) defines Delay of Game as:

8. Action clearly designed to delay the officials from making the ball ready for play (A.R. 3-4-2-II).
PENALTY:  Dead-ball foul. Five yards from the succeeding spot [S7 and S21].

With 4 seconds left, the official spots the ball.

After spotting the ball with 4 seconds left, the official does not allow UW to take their positions and snap the ball as seen here at the 3 second mark.

The official can be seen backing up to his position and lowering his hand to allow the Badgers to take their positions with 1 second on the clock.

The Badgers were unable to get set and snap the ball to spike it prior to the clock running out, losing the game 32-30. Stave took a knee with 16 seconds left on the clock and the officials did not make the ball set for play until 1 second was left.