There is a growing trend of end-of-game officiating disasters in college football. Here are 3 cases.
1. The Western Michigan loss to Michigan. Game over! Michigan's Hail Mary failed. Oh wait, there is a review and magically, mysteriously, one second was found on a secondary clock, not the field clock that everyone can see. Of course, Michigan "wins" the game with their second Hail Mary.
What was going on? Was the Big Ten (B1G) Conference exerting tacit pressure to ensure one of their iconic teams would not be upset at home by an inferior school from an inferior conference?
Was the real ending off script, so that it had to be reviewed and re-adjusted?
Well, the NCAA released a subsequent statement saying that the rules protocol had not been followed, and that one second should not have been added to the clock; however, since the game was declared over, the final score could not be changed.
That's a long way of saying that Western Michigan got screwed!
2. What about the obvious PI penalty that wasn't called against Georgia in the recent Alabama game? Bama could have won, or at least tied the game, at that late stage.
SEC Commissioner, Greg Sankey, later said that the conference has a policy of not commenting on judgment calls.
If that's the case, why not institute a mechanism for reviewing crucial, end-of-game calls? A review would have quickly reversed the call. Bama had no recourse, other than to have its coach, Kalen DeBoer, go ballistic on the sidelines.
3. Notre Dame gets the daily double screw job against BYU: an obvious PI call is not made and the one, remaining second on the clock is ignored.
The instant the last play ended, BYU fans stormed the field and chaos reigned. How could you restore order then and try to review the play? Does anyone think that all the fans would return politely to their seats, as the officials weeded through the issues at hand?
Besides, who would want to curtail the jubilant and delerious fans on their home field?
Let it go. Game over!
Not so fast, my friend!
Is there no way to review two obvious injustices against Notre Dame?
Afterwards, the Big 12 conference admitted that the officials made an error in letting the clock run out.
Also, they said that the conference would conduct a complete review of its end-of-game officiating processes.
Once again, a lot of words to tell ND the obvious: it got screwed!
Will college football ever get its act together?
