These rules are specifically set for NCAA Championships. If you look at the title of that section, it's "CHAMPIONSHIPS EQUIPMENT REQUIREMENTS", and are negotiable by the initial guidelines of Article 3.
I should add that I've been using FinishLynx to time meets for 10 years. I attempt to get races longer than 1500-1600m with a stopwatch just in case, but it doesn't always happen.
I'm not sure why all of this got started. Flash Results timed the meet, the results are all indicative that it was FAT through the whole thing, it doesn't seem like it's even a debatable point, German ran 3:55.02 FAT, not 3:55.0, and 3:55.02 is faster, by rule, than Waldrop.