The one where the secretary, typing up the death letters, notices that she has typed up two with the same name and address.

She gets up and goes over to another table, and finds another letter with the same name and address. She takes the issue up with her superiors, who decide to create the mission to save Private James Ryan, the fourth son.

That secretary could have just ignored it and kept typing up her death letters, but she did the right thing.

Brock Hoffman could have used someone in the NCAA office who took that same kind of care and thought, "Hmm, this kid is five miles outside the radius. His coach changed ... I think he'd have a better chance of getting his waiver if he did it a different way."

That's a little melodramatic, and it's apples and oranges, but if a human being, as @Baltimore Hokie pointed out elsewhere, had just stopped and thought about things, instead of checking off their bureaucratic boxes, this could have turned out differently. I still think it will resolve itself, but there are no guarantees with the NCAA.