A solution to the Ref controversy

#1
CountVolcula

CountVolcula

Eternal Vol
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Nov 3, 2008
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#1
What I, as well as many an SEC fan, have noticed over the last couple of weeks, is the disparity in the calls during Alabama and UF games. It has become very obvious that those two teams have been the recipient of some rather questionable calls. Is this a coincidence? Probably not.

The reason: The SEC is in line to make a huge amount of money if an undefeated Florida and undefeated Alabama play in the SEC Championship game. It could be argued that this would be the BCS title game. The winner, vaulted as the favorite to win the BCS title game. With both teams strength of schedule and with no other undefeated teams in the BCS, then it could also be agrued that both teams should meet again in the BCS Title game. This is not impossible seeing that a 2 lose LSU team made the BCS title game, even though a couple of deserving 1 lose teams should have made it. If that scenario were to play out, then the SEC would have hit the lottery. But if either Florida or Alabama were to lose during the season, then the loser of the SEC Championship would have 2 loses, and would most certainly be overtaken by a 1 lose Texas or 1 lose USC team. An undeafeated BYU or other small conference school would not be in play under any circumstance. The Big Boys wouldnt allow that to happen.

Solution: Take the officiating assignments out of the hands of the SEC and other conferences and put it in the hands of NCAA. In turn, do not release the names of the crews until the day of the games. This will somewhat insure that if there is tampering of the officiating crews, it will be a last second scramble to insure that the calls are more in favor of the "favorites" of the conferences. The officials will also not feel a "dedication" to each conference since the conferences will not be handing out punishments and crappy assignments to those officials that dont "play along".

Each conference assigning their own officiating crews is like an NFL team being responsible for paying and hiring the crew for each home game. Doesnt make much since does it.

A fair and impartial officiating crew is imperative in maintaining a level playing field and keeping the integrity of the game we all love to watch. The BCS and the money that is involved is ruining College Football. This is why a playoff system needs to be implemented so that every school has a fair shot to become a TRUE National Champion.

Sorry for the long post

Go Vols!!
 
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#2
#2
nice thoughts.......tough to make 'em travel that much, but totally agree about the playoff system, but it still won't solve the sorry calls, IMO (unless you have alot of teams, ie at least 8, if not more)
 
#4
#4
Nice post. I've said for a while that there shouldn't be "conference" refs. They should be governed by the NCAA.
 
#9
#9
When interviewed shortly after the incident the Ref had this to say

"Ele disse algo sobre minha mae"
 
#10
#10
The Referee is in charge of the crew on the field. There should be a booth official that oversees the entire crew. This booth official has the authority to stop play at anytime to ensure the rules are followed correctly. With the advances in replay and HD, every play should be reviewed and confirmed for accuracy. Get rid of the NFL's quirky "judgement call" loop hole.

Think about it, most teams have their OC and/or DC in the booth since they can see the field, and call plays/adjustments. Seems only fitting that officials should also be able to make calls from that position.
 
#11
#11
Come on - really? You really think SLIVE told them to blow calls so we could see a UF vs Bama matchup.

Hope you didn't buy your "stuff" from Lemarcus Davidson as you will need to find a new supplier.
 
#12
#12
I don't believe there is a conspiracy on the part of the SEC home office but I do think officials have a tendancy to lean toward the favorite in most cases. The true individual stars of team sports always get a pass, how often did Michael Jordan get called for charging? The only way to fight the trend is to build the program and to put a team on the field that is so good that the officials can't affect the outcome. I think the entire SEC knows that is exactly what is happening at UT.
 
#13
#13
Sorry to post this in more than one thread, but I didn't see this more appropriate thread at the time I initially made it.

I don't buy into the conspiracy theory at all. Just too much evidence that does not support it.

For example, if the officials were really out to help make sure Bama would win they certainly had an opportunity to have flagged Rogan for PI on Julio in the end zone.

Bear in mind too that Bama was penalized 10 times for over 100 yards in its close hard fought home game against SC just the week before. Most were illegal blocking penalties on kick and punt returns and cost many more yards in field position than just the penalty yards. I'd be willing to bet that the Bama coaches put their collective feet down with the players about penalties. I think that probably more than anything else is why Bama had only one penalty in the UT game. BTW, that penalty was a stupid block in the back that did not even effect the play and I'm pretty sure the player that committed that penalty did not get to play anymore.

Here's another example that flies in the face of all of the calls going in Bama's and Florida's favor:

CF09--OCT._10--P83__ALAB-MISS.jpg


That pic of Julio Jones getting blatantly interferred with by two players at the same time in the end zone is from this season's Bama at Ole Miss game.

No flag was thrown. Maybe no official had an angle to see them grabbing Julio from behind. Julio did not make any "throw a flag" jestures after the play.

Bear in mind that Julio has a tremendous vertical leap and can outjump those DBs and make that catch. Because no flag was thrown, Bama had to settle for a FG.

With respect to "blown" penalty calls and no calls, I rather doubt that there is much if any intentional cheating going on by officials, but I do think there are way too many officiating mistakes.

Regardless of whether blown penalty calls and no-calls are intentional or accidental the problem can be fixed quite easily. Here's how:

Simply make penalty calls and no-calls subject to the exact same play review system that's used for all other plays.

The officials have a tough job getting everything right and there is too much at stake not to use the review system for penalty calls and no-calls.

I'd love to see the fans and media start pushing for this to happen.

JMHO.
 
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#14
#14
Tidal Surge said:
For example, if the officials were really out to help make sure Bama would win they certainly had an opportunity to have flagged Rogan for PI on Julio in the end zone.
Click to expand...

Get over it already, as repeating the same thing over and over in every thread doesn't make it magically true. Julio stopped his route short and initiated contact with Rogan by trying to push him back. Pictures were even supplied by a bama fan trying to prove PI, and only served to show Julio initiating contact.

Silly bammers...
 
#15
#15
It's really pretty stupid. I really don't think they are protecting the top teams like UF, Bama, and LSU but if there is something weird is going on it doesn't make sense. Sure it is cool to have a SEC team in the national championship every year and win it, but how many other teams are getting screwed out of being bowl eligible from the SEC by some of these calls. Thats just as much money anyway. The SEC is assured at least one BCS bowl bid every year and most years it end up being two. Personally I would rather have 8 teams total in bowls as opposed to only 6 and possibly not making the NC game...which is still very unlikely for the SEC champion not to make it there.
 
#16
#16
HawaiiVol said:
Get over it already, as repeating the same thing over and over in every thread doesn't make it magically true. Julio stopped his route short and initiated contact with Rogan by trying to push him back. Pictures were even supplied by a bama fan trying to prove PI, and only served to show Julio initiating contact.

Silly bammers...
Click to expand...

You totally missed the point of my post. I did not want to debate that or any calls or no calls. The point of my post was to rally fan support for making penalty calls and no calls subject to the same review system as other officiating calls.

I saw that some Vol fans are mad and sending e-mails to Hamilton, etc. I've sent some e-mails myself to some media people to try to garner some publicity in support of making penalty calls and no calls reviewable. I was hoping maybe some angry Vol fans might channel some of that energy constructively and join in and do the same. The more noise fans make pushing for it the more likely such a movement would be to gain some legs. IMO, getting the media to start talking it up is the best way to get it done.
 
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#18
#18
TidalSurge - I actually agree with much of your post (you weakened your argument with the reference to Rogan - and not because I personally disagree with you, but because about 95% of this board would disagree & then of course, discount anything else you said). However, leaving poor debating skills aside - I think most would agree that the quality of the SEC officiating this year has been woeful and needs to be fixed. Typically, bad calls "even out;" however, through my orange-colored glasses, it does appear that FL has gotten more than its fair share of the questionable (or flat out wrong) calls. I haven't seen enough Bama games to know whether or not AL has had a disproportionate # of bad calls go their way thru the entire season, but the game yesterday was not called evenly. Having said all of that, I find it hard to believe that this could be a true conspiracy; i.e., a policy. Mainly because I don't see how they could ever establish it as such... certainly no one would email or even orally say "we need to make sure AL-FL meet up in the BCSNC game"! - But yes, with today's technology & with the $$ riding on these games (both the legal and the illegal), there's too much at stake to not have a better system.
 
#19
#19
HawaiiVol said:
Then why bring it up? It's obviously a sticking point.
Click to expand...

It was one of three examples, I used to explain why I don't buy that the refs were biased and why I don't buy into the conspiracy theory. I wasn't trying to say that I thought a PI call should have been made, my point was that if the refs were so biased against UT, then it seems like they would have made a PI call there.
 
#20
#20
Tidal Surge said:
For example, if the officials were really out to help make sure Bama would win they certainly had an opportunity to have flagged Rogan for PI on Julio in the end zone.
Click to expand...

Or, they could have thrown a flag on Jones for offensive PI and they didn't. Honestly, who had a better shot at catching that ball? Jones or Rogan?
 
#21
#21
At Rizzo924: Thanks for the acknowledgement of my intentions and I totally get what you're saying about my bad choice of examples in support of my cause.

I really see no valid reasons for not simply making penalty calls and no-calls subject to the exact same review system/rules as other officiating calls. I'm talking standard booth review that happens for every play, the ability to pause play for further review when needed and the ability for coaches to issue a challenge. The solution to the blown penalty calls problem just seems so simple to me that it's outrageous for it not to be done.
 
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#22
#22
OWB said:
Or, they could have thrown a flag on Jones for offensive PI and they didn't. Honestly, who had a better shot at catching that ball? Jones or Rogan?
Click to expand...
Good point.

However, as I've already said it was not my intent to debate that play or whether either side should have been flagged.

Instead, I mentioned that as an example of something the officials could have called in Bama's favor if they were really trying to throw the game as so many Vol fans seem to think.

It was mentioned as one of three examples I used from among the many others that exist that tend to blow holes in the pathetic conspiracy theory that SEC officials are intentionally throwing games in favor of UF and UA.

BTW, I wholeheartedly agree with the sentiment that the outcome of games should not be subject to blown penalty calls and no-calls. And as I have posted, I think there is a very viable solution readily available to solve the problem for all of college football. Simply make penalty calls and no-calls subject to the same review system as all other plays and officiating calls. That will enable the officials to get it right the overwhelming majority of the time and help ensure that they do.
 
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#23
#23
I am not a fan of the conspiracy theory but if one tries to look at it objectively (hard to do) it seems that a disproportionate number of calls (or no calls) have gone the way of UF and Bama. The interception in the UF/MSU game late in the game changed the outcome of that game and it was clearly visable on the replay. I also wondered why there was no flag or even any mention of the play where the Bama defender made an obvious helmet to helmet hit that but the USC player on a stretcher. Just two examples that I noticed.
 
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