| FTBL Faulting officiating for a loss is an idea I refuse to entertain. However, I'm beginning to entertain the idea of more public accountability.

[TerryP]

There's a thread running here now about the end of the Memphis game where the official failed to blow the call dead (among other mistakes.)

In case you missed it, the crew at the Auburn game took a down away from Penn State because, literally, the official couldn't keep track.

As fans, we did get the 'boilerplate' apology from the SEC, "oops, we missed it, sorry." It was a press release.

Moving off the field, post-game, we see these guys that are 18 and 19 years old getting questioned on misreading the offense and throwing an interception. We see guys grilled about missed assignments on defense, dropped touchdown passes, penalities, and the like.

The answer given by these kids aren't in the form of a press release. There's accountablity in front of the public through the media.

Let's talk about the coaching staff's taking questions about the time clock or a particular play. Do I need to remind anyone of, "I'm not going to answer so stop asking?" (sic)

Here's where I'm stumbling a bit.

What do we see after the games? The officials 'bookin'' to get out of the stadium's as quickly as possible. It's as if they have a "get out of jail free" card. A protected class.

Where's the accountabiilty? There is none. Transparancy? Like an opaque window.

Not only am I'm leaning towards making these officials have press conference after the game.

(Eliminating "conference officials" in football, like basketball, is a good place to start for another improvement.)

 

[It Takes Eleven]

There's a thread running here now about the end of the Memphis game where the official failed to blow the call dead (among other mistakes.)

In case you missed it, the crew at the Auburn game took a down away from Penn State because, literally, the official couldn't keep track.

As fans, we did get the 'boilerplate' apology from the SEC, "oops, we missed it, sorry." It was a press release.

Moving off the field, post-game, we see these guys that are 18 and 19 years old getting questioned on misreading the offense and throwing an interception. We see guys grilled about missed assignments on defense, dropped touchdown passes, penalities, and the like.

The answer given by these kids aren't in the form of a press release. There's accountablity in front of the public through the media.

Let's talk about the coaching staff's taking questions about the time clock or a particular play. Do I need to remind anyone of, "I'm not going to answer so stop asking?" (sic)

Here's where I'm stumbling a bit.

What do we see after the games? The officials 'bookin'' to get out of the stadium's as quickly as possible. It's as if they have a "get out of jail free" card. A protected class.

Where's the accountabiilty? There is none. Transparancy? Like an opaque window.

Not only am I'm leaning towards making these officials have press conference after the game.

(Eliminating "conference officials" in football, like basketball, is a good place to start for another improvement.)

In many cases, the refs get real time performance reviews for reviewable plays. I agree, the three downs for PSU was inexcusable and the crew should be punished. Sometimes you'll see crews either get put aside, removed from bowl assignments, or reassigned midseason. I disagree on the press conferences, that will only focus on what was done wrong - a no win.

 

[50+yeartidefan]

With @It Takes Eleven on PCs....

but there was somecrap officiating...

@TerryP The official in the msu game...did blow the balldead ( with his arms) you can see him
doing so....after he threw his beans bag......... un acceptable ....period

As losing a down in PSU game...can stop clock and check....

Missed a face mask and horse collar on bama.....that would have been big...

but no PC.... just crap officials

 

[TerryP]

@TerryP The official in the msu game...did blow the balldead ( with his arms) you can see him
doing so....after he threw his beans bag......... un acceptable ....period

There's a reason there is an expression, "play through the whistle." His arm motion is not relevant.

 

[Crtuneman]

The crew of the Auburn-PSU game was especially incompetent. They made some egregious errors which were inexcusable. I feel like they should be suspended for a few games and sent back to school. But it seems like this is a widespread issue that affects not only college but Pro as well. Are officials getting worse? Or does the use of instant replay simply highlight what was always there?

 

[50+yeartidefan]

There's a reason there is an expression, "play through the whistle." His arm motion is not relevant.

The hand motions are used because you can't always hear whistle...
The hand motion is same....I think....someone may correct me...
But he ran toward ball waving his hands above his head...after throwing bean bag...
yep msu player could have picked ball up....making it dead...
But the official signaled ball dead

 

[50+yeartidefan]

The crew of the Auburn-PSU game was especially incompetent. They made some egregious errors which were inexcusable. I feel like they should be suspended for a few games and sent back to school. But it seems like this is a widespread issue that affects not only college but Pro as well. Are officials getting worse? Or does the use of instant replay simply highlight what was always there?

Suremakes sec officials..which seem to make bad calls a lot...look bad

 

[TerryP]

The hand motions are used because you can't always hear whistle...
The hand motion is same....I think....someone may correct me...
But he ran toward ball waving his hands above his head...after throwing bean bag...
yep msu player could have picked ball up....making it dead...
But the official signaled ball dead

Hand motions are not meant for players. In this specific case it's a signal to the time keeper to stop the clock. A live ball becomes a dead ball upon the whistle. That's the key here. It was still a live ball because no whistle was blown.

To be clear. The official signaled to stop the clock.

 

[50+yeartidefan]

Hand motions are not meant for players. In this specific case it's a signal to the time keeper to stop the clock. A live ball becomes a dead ball upon the whistle. That's the key here. It was still a live ball because no whistle was blown.

To be clear. The official signaled to stop the clock.

and that stopsthe play...
The sec office admits that...and that it should have ...couldhave...been reviewed...
anyway....

 

[TerryP]

and that stopsthe play...
The sec office admits that...and that it should have ...couldhave...been reviewed...
anyway....

Then what are you saying here?

The hand motions are used because you can't always hear whistle...

 

[bamafan9201]

I've not done football games before but I've umpired plenty of baseball games when I was younger and to say I was 100% accurate is probably a lie. So, I understand the issues of trying to get a bang-bang type play 100% accurate especially while running down the sideline yourself.

That being said, it may slow down the game, but they could handle some things a little better.

I think people realize there is a margin for error they can let happen, to your point though. There are definitely some spots that can be fixed or cleaned up. Not knowing the rules or not being able to replay the down and distance thing to get it right seems a bit like the "get out of jail free" excuse.

In the instance of MSU, that Referee should've blown his whistle and not let the play conclude in the end zone if he truly felt it was dead. That's a terrible way to lose a game, but being defenders you should always know to possess the ball to make it dead. They didn't do their due diligence and things like that can happen.

Essentially, there needs to be some accountability here, also I think education and testing needs to be a little more strenuous. Perhaps a midseason reminder on a few rules and perhaps a weekly "film study" to go over their issues. This would tie into professional officials argument

 

[Rolltide24]

I wonder if the college ranks are having the same staffing challenges that the high school ranks are having. Probably not an issue, but just thinking out loud. Here, they are having to strategically schedule some high school games on Thursday’s and some at 3:30 on Friday’s so crews can work multiple games. Because they are critically short of refs.

 

[BamaFan334]

I don't understand where the replay officials were during all of this. Their whole freaking job is to watch the game from a monitor. Why can they not be there in instances like this? I get there are rules based on what can be reviewed, but there has to be a common sense ruling in there too. A team not getting four downs, another team with two guys with the same number on the field at the same time (not even bringing into the picture the hands and potential blown whistle), that's inexcusable from a replay perspective. Each game could cost a team millions of dollars in Playoffs/bowl games/conference championships, cost them recruits, sponsorships, coaching jobs, and a lot of other things, the least the paid officials could do is make sure it's a relatively clean game. These weren't "at their discretion" calls, these were simply illegal plays.

 

[TerryP]

I wonder if the college ranks are having the same staffing challenges that the high school ranks are having.

Consider this.

In Texas officials will get at least $100 a game. If they travel 90+ miles it jumps to $200. I understand the SEC officials are getting 5K per game.

I don't think there's a shortage.

 

[50+yeartidefan]

Then what are you saying here?

Same thing SEC office says

 

[TerryP]

Same thing SEC office says

View attachment 18934

Notice the sentence cut off at the bottom? "...play was legal ...remained a live ball."

Changing the subject a tad;

Kudo's to Austin for realizing it was still a live ball.

 

[rick4bama]

After reading and listening to the head SEC official. I understand it more.

 

[BamaFan334]

Notice the sentence cut off at the bottom? "...play was legal ...remained a live ball."

Changing the subject a tad;

Kudo's to Austin for realizing it was still a live ball.

Kind of funny how waiving an arm by an official is met with slack, but waiving of the arm by a player is met with blunt force. It's unfortunate this day in age, because guys are getting hit with targeting over anything, personal fouls, roughing the passers, and they are expected to think in .2 and react, as well as listen for whistles and hand signals from coaches and referees, but in this instance that searing of the brains of these guys failed them as the rule should be changed and that ball blown dead. When a ref waives his hands it's always met with a whistle. I have never ever in my life not seen it like that. This instance clearly hurt Mississippi State and the game should absolutely be protested. I can read the rule, but it makes zero sense with how they want the game played today. You have bands, whistles, waiving arms, coaches/fans/sidelines jumping all over the place, cameras on zip lines etc. Change that rule to reflect the game we have today.

With all of that being said, when have any of us EVER seen a punting team touch a ball with a finger and it not be blown dead? COUNTLESS times have we seen a guy just touch the ball and it be blown dead within a second. Never have I ever seen this much of a pause between the two.

 

[bamaledge]

I don't understand where the replay officials were during all of this. Their whole freaking job is to watch the game from a monitor. Why can they not be there in instances like this? I get there are rules based on what can be reviewed, but there has to be a common sense ruling in there too. A team not getting four downs, another team with two guys with the same number on the field at the same time (not even bringing into the picture the hands and potential blown whistle), that's inexcusable from a replay perspective. Each game could cost a team millions of dollars in Playoffs/bowl games/conference championships, cost them recruits, sponsorships, coaching jobs, and a lot of other things, the least the paid officials could do is make sure it's a relatively clean game. These weren't "at their discretion" calls, these were simply illegal plays.

Hey Joe, think I’ll go get a hot dog. You coming? You betcha, I’m ready for a dog or two. That’s where they were.

 

[footballer]

In my life, I have watched countless number of games, both college and professional. I have never read official rule book regarding downing a punt. But it has always been my understanding that when a member of the punting team Touches the ball, it is a Dead ball and receiving team begins offensive play from that point. It has been many years since I attended a game, but have been to a lot of games. From my vantage point, whistles were rarely heard, and rarely if ever heard while watching games on TV. So hand motions are relied upon ways of communication, at least for attendees and TV watchers. In my view, downing a punt by touching on purpose or by accident has always been accepted in countless number of games that I saw in person or watched on TV.

It is not un common for refs to make mistakes in judgement calls especially. But to allow a ball that has been clearly touched down by the punting team to be advanced by the receiving team is unacceptable. Making a mistake on the field by not blowing a whistle is one thing but allowing the TD to stand is quite another. That should never have happened.

The not being able to count the downs in the Penn State albarn game is really unbelievable. Is only one ref charged with keeping up with downs?
There has to be, should be, needs to be a fail proof system in place to keep up with what down it is.

There have been a good many games that I have watched on TV that that I believed the downs weren't kept up with properly.
I wonder how often this has happened and never caught?