Head coach Dan Mullen harshly criticized an SEC replay official for not overturning the on-field ruling that Florida’s Dustin Doe crossed the goal line before fumbling an interception return in Saturday’s game.
Anyone who sees the video can see the ball clearly came out before entering the end zone, so it should have been our ball at the 20. This would have changed the entire dynamic of the game, and although the Bulldogs probably still would have lost, who knows? The blown call was the last nail in the Bulldogs’ coffin.
Mullen was officially reprimanded by the SEC for criticizing the officiating, becoming the third SEC head coach in the last eight days to be reprimanded for pointing out questionable calls that may have cost his team a chance to beat one of the SEC’s giants.
Arkansas head coach Bobby Petrino was reprimanded after pointing out how SEC referees gave Florida a pretty big boost last week. Not only were the Hogs outpenalized 92-16 by yards, when Florida was down by 7, it followed a bogus pass interference penalty with ridiculous personal foul (that was so bad the refs were suspended later), allowing the Gators to tie the game. Then after Arkansas missed a field goal, the refs ignored blatant offensive pass interference from Florida’s Riley Cooper to set up Florida’s game-winning field goal.
Tennessee head coach Lane Kiffin was reprimanded for complaining that the refs outpenalized the Vols 68-10 in yards in Saturday’s game with Alabama. He also pointed out the refs didn’t call a penalty on Terrence Cody for taking off his helmet before the whistle blew the final play dead.
A few weeks before, SEC refs gave LSU a huge gift when they were still undefeated and a national title contender. In LSU’s game against Georgia, they called an absurd celebration penalty on AJ Green after his amazing touchdown catch gave them the lead with barely a minute to play. The 15-yard penalty on the kickoff gave LSU crucial yards and helped them score a winning touchdown in the final minute.
Now I don’t believe the SEC is consciously trying to help the undefeated teams stay undefeated, but it has to make you wonder when it seems to consistently happen.
And it doesn’t just happen in the SEC. Big 10 officials put a bigger screwjob on Michigan State Saturday than any SEC team has received. Iowa somehow got off four passes in the final 15 seconds, including a tipped incompletion on third-and-goal that the refs claimed only took three seconds off the clock. Come on.
Michigan State coach Mark Dantonio didn’t criticize the officials, but challenged the media to take a look at the plays and decide whether that needed to be done. It does.
I see two solutions that will help solve this problem. First of all, we’ve got to get rid of conference officials. Just let the NCAA or some outside organizations employ the referees and send them to games from several different conferences. That way, officials won’t have any loyalty to a conference and won’t have a subconscious desire to help any team out.
Second, get rid of the BCS and have a playoff that includes seven (that’s right, put Boise State in the Mountain West – it deserves it as much as the Big East) power conference champions and an at-large team. Yeah, I went there.
The entire Big 10 knows the only chance for a Big 10 team to win the national title is for Iowa to go 12-0 and hope that either Texas or both Florida and Alabama (and maybe also Cincinnati or TCU) lose a game. Had Michigan State beaten Iowa, then that’s it for the Big 10.
But if there was a playoff, the Big 10 or any other conference would know its champion would be in, Iowa or otherwise. There would be no need for any conference to ever slant its officiating toward the best team if it always knew it would have a chance to have one of its teams compete for a national title.