Sporting News Writer On SEC Officiating...

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http://www.sportingnews.com/college-football/article/2009-11-07/conspiracy-theorists-about-sec-officiating-might-be-on-something

Conspiracy theorists about SEC officiating might be on to something
.Matt Hayes
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Login or register to post commentsPrinter-friendly versionSaturday, Nov. 7, 2009 - 9:33 p.m. ET

LSU coach Les Miles has to bite his lip about poor SEC officiating.TUSCALOOSA, ALA. -- Mike Slive may fine me for this, but here goes.

How can it come to this? How can college football's best conference -- the best players, the best coaches, the best of everything -- continue to be subjected to brutally poor officiating?

Alabama beat LSU 24-15 in the best game of the season to date, and all we'll remember is a blown call from a replay official late in the fourth quarter that changed everything. Instead of celebrating a big win for No. 3 Alabama and looking forward to the SEC championship game against No.1 Florida next month, we're left with this:

"Speculation," said LSU coach Les Miles, "is rampant."

That, everyone, was Miles with his Slive muzzle permanently affixed. For the fourth time in a month, the SEC commissioner is dealing with credibility issues for his officials. Last week, Slive said he would fine or suspend any coach who complained about officiating -- and eventually levied a $30,000 hit on Florida coach Urban Meyer.



Let's review


SEC officials have been part of a handful of questionable calls this fall, and many have directly impacted the outcome of the game.

LSU at Georgia, Oct. 3: Both LSU and Georgia are flagged for excessive celebration penalties late in the fourth quarter. SEC says officials erred on both calls.

Arkansas at Florida, Oct. 17: Arkansas was flagged for a personal foul call in the fourth quarter against Florida. The SEC said the call was incorrect, and the crew was suspended from their next assignment.

Florida at Mississippi State, Oct. 24: Florida LB Dustin Doe scored on an interception return and television replays clearly showed Doe fumbled before crossing the goal line. The SEC said replay was inconclusive.

LSU at Alabama, Nov. 7: Television replays show LSU CB Patrick Peterson intercepted a pass late in the fourth quarter, but replay official confirmed call of incompletion. -- MH
Since Miles won't say anything, I will. This is beyond bad officiating. It's so undeniably awful, I'm beginning to believe conspiracy nuts who claim the SEC is protecting its heavyweight teams (Florida and Alabama) since, you know, every poor call in the last month has involved, uh, Florida and Alabama.

This time it was a non-call of an interception by LSU cornerback Patrick Peterson, a pick that would've given the Tigers the ball at their 37 with 5:54 to play and trailing by six. Instead, Alabama eventually kicked a field goal on the drive, went up by nine and iced the game.

"I was definitely in," Peterson said. "I showed (officials) the mark on the field."

Television replays clearly showed Peterson got not one, but both feet in bounds. I'm not exactly sure, but when CBS showed the replay booth, I could've sworn I saw the Three Wise Monkeys: see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil.

"The hardest part," Miles said, measuring his words for fear of the $30K spanking, "is telling our guys that's how it is. Patrick says he intercepted the ball. The replay official said he didn't."

Said Alabama quarterback Greg McElroy: "It was one of those 'Oh, shoot!' moments. I guess sometimes you just get a break."

The breaks that keep on giving. After the coaches at Tennessee, Arkansas and Mississippi State all complained about bad calls -- the SEC admitted as much in the Arkansas loss to Florida -- Slive directed his closed-mouth mandate. The problem: The bad calls keep coming.


Alabama's Mark Ingram has another huge game, now the clear leader in Heisman race.The shame of it all is here is a moment where the SEC should be standing tall and thumping its chest and bragging about another No. 1 vs. No. 2 matchup in the league's championship game -- a title matchup that will be the most important game of the season for the fourth straight year.

The league should be promoting Mark Ingram, Alabama's bowling ball of a tailback who churned out another monster game (22 carries, 144 yards) against a terrific LSU defense -- and is now the clear leader in the race for the Heisman Trophy.

"If there's a better player out there," said Alabama linebacker Cory Reamer, "I want to see him."

In a crowded postgame press conference, Ingram talked about staying focused and not looking ahead to the game of the year with Florida. The preliminaries are finally over, and now we wait.

For the best game in college football's regular season. For a defacto semifinal national playoff game. For the biggest, baddest conference to once again put on a show that dwarfs the BCS national championship game.

And for the SEC to do something about the truly pathetic officiating.

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Penn State QB Clark: 'We were in disarray'
SN member bloggers are ranting: Join them
.The SEC has won three straight national championships, and could make it four in a row in January. Nothing, it seems, can stop the goliath of a league.

Nothing but itself.

"There's a team in there that's understandably unhappy," Miles said. "This day had a lot of promise."

See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil.

[AuburnChopper 3.0]

CBS Has a take Also....

Tide's win is no masterpiece for maligned SEC officials
Nov. 7, 2009
By Dennis Dodd
CBSSports.com Senior Writer
Tell Dennis your opinion!   
 
     
 
 
 
 

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. -- Daniel Moore, grab your brush. You've spent a lifetime committing to canvas some of the greatest moments in Alabama football history. Your work hangs in some of the state's finest gallerias.

It's kitschy; it's cool with a bit of a velvet Elvis feel to it. It's a bit Howie Mandel in that we see waaaay too much of them, considering the Bear's been gone for a while and the Tide haven't won so much as a conference title in 10 years, but it has an audience.

Seriously, though, where do you start with what happened Saturday night?

Your team won, 24-15 over hated LSU, and clinched a spot in the SEC title game for the second consecutive year. The national title dream is still alive. But even you, Daniel, have to admit that 'Bama quarterback Greg McElroy was trying to set the conference record for most wide-open receivers overthrown in a single afternoon. It was so close that LSU was leading 15-10 in the fourth quarter despite missing three starters due to injury.

Fortunately for your Tide, the coaches made the startling discovery that tailback Mark Ingram can carry a misfiring offense. The much-smothered Julio Jones made basically one play -- a 73-yard touchdown pass and run on a receiver screen -- and that was it.

It was that close, that wonderful and that great, except for one thing: How, exactly, do you paint a conspiracy theory? That's what they'll be screaming from here to Fayetteville and back in the SEC. Did LSU corner Patrick Peterson come down inbounds with an interception of a McElroy pass with 5:54 left in the game?

Early returns say he did, despite a ruling on the field that the pass was incomplete and backed up by the video replay booth. From this viewpoint, supported by sideline witnesses and seemingly by replays, Peterson's left foot was in and Peterson himself says both feet. CBS television kept showing a divot inbounds that looked like it was created when the sophomore cornerback landed. If that's the case, you have to wonder how it can happen again. The SEC -- Suspend Everybody Conference -- has another flaming bag of poo on its porch.

"Speculation," LSU coach Les Miles deadpanned, "is rampant."

Conspiracy theory? It seems like every major call in this league this season has gone in favor of the two undefeated superpowers. Florida clinched its spot in the SEC title game last week. Yeah, it's a mess, and like last Sunday's YouTube video of Brandon Spikes going eye surgeon on that Georgia tailback, this sucker's about to go viral.

LSU-Alabama video
Recap: Lundquist, Danielson in Tuscaloosa

Postgame: Crimson Tide's Ingram, Saban

SEC Postgame Show
 
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Recap: No. 3 Alabama 24, No. 9 LSU 15

Conference races: Florida-Alabama for SEC title
 
Column
Tony Barnhart
There are many lessons that football teaches, but the greatest of these is the possibility for redemption. More
 
"The difficult issue that I have is telling my team," Miles said. "The issue is telling Patrick Peterson who, in his mind, knows that it's an interception."

The issue is not whether LSU would have been able to go 69 yards or so for the winning score trailing 21-15 at that point. It would have been tough, but so were the Tigers, who led 15-10 in the fourth quarter despite missing their quarterback (Jordan Jefferson, ankle), tailback (Charles Scott, possible broken collarbone) and best corner (Peterson, cramps).

The issue is getting things right in a league which had just caught its breath after the hefty fine given to Florida's Urban Meyer for criticizing officials. Getting things right in a league that has the best football and best fans, but seemingly a group of officials on the field and in the booth who treat their jobs like spilled beer at the frat house.

So what? Somebody will clean it up.

In the space of a week before Saturday:

• Commissioner Mike Slive went to the suspension and fine card;

• Spikes was outed on YouTube, then suspended a half-game;

• His coach became the first one to dare Slive to play the suspension and fine card;

• Spikes was suspended some more, this time by himself;

• Slive played the fine card, docking Meyer $30,000 on Friday.

A week from now, the suspended crew in that Florida-Arkansas mess is due to come back, and now this? Somebody get a mop: The frat-house floor is getting sticky.

How, Daniel, do you paint a veteran SEC official spending an afternoon raking leaves? That's what one Gerald Hodges, listed as the replay official who worked the game, might be doing next week if he is suspended for not overturning the call on the field.

Hodges, by the way, is a former on-field official who was quoted in 2006 as saying, "I'm all for it [replay] -- anything we can use to correct a play and get it right."

   
Patrick Peterson (7) stays in Julio Jones' grill until the LSU corner leaves the game with cramping. (AP)   
"I clearly thought it was an interception," LSU quarterback Jarrett Lee said. "I was right there when he did it. His foot looked inbounds. I saw the divot on the ground. Our football team on offense were ready to go out there. I couldn't believe it."

Neither could Peterson.

"When I caught the ball ... I tried to get two feet in. I believe I got two feet in," the sophomore corner said. "Definitely the foot marks left on the field [show it]. Not even on the white [sideline], it was all on the green. ..."

As you know, Daniel, nothing was at stake Saturday except Alabama's continued pursuit of a national championship and that first SEC title in a decade. The BCS was about to be ripped asunder with LSU leading in the fourth quarter and then -- voilà! -- 'Bama won. Florida knows the feeling -- it was trailing Arkansas at Gainesville in the fourth quarter until the infamous Marc Curles called a phantom personal foul. That was after the same crew had called a phantom excessive celebration penalty against Georgia in a game against LSU.

Early in the game on Saturday, we were informed there was "no replay available." In the fourth quarter, an official clearly made a mistake spotting the ball after LSU ran into the punter. A fourth-and-six from the 50 became, well, fourth and less than a half-yard after the ball was marked inside LSU's 45.

Two plays later, having returned from cramping up, Peterson stepped in front of Jones and, well, all hell may be breaking loose again.

"It was kind of like an, 'Oh shoot,' moment," said McElroy, who regretted throwing the pass the moment it left his hand. "Sometimes you have calls go in your favor. That one did."

As this rate, SEC supervisor of officials Rogers Redding is going to be hoisting the conference championship trophy in Atlanta in a month.

"When he jumped for it, he came down out of bounds," Jones said of Peterson.

Of course, Jones has a bias. He had been going at it with Peterson the whole game. With Peterson covering him, Jones had six balls thrown to him. There were four incompletions, a pass interference on Peterson and the dreaded replay.

"What's funny is Julio got real mad at one point in the game," McElroy said. "No. 7 [Peterson] was talking. He said, 'We're going to show him.'"

By the time Jones showed him, the receiver was deep in the doghouse as Jones had dropped a pass earlier. He was penalized in the fourth quarter after being the 12th man on the field in the red zone. That forced a furious Nick Saban to settle for a field goal.

Peterson was on the sideline with cramps when Jones lined up against sophomore safety Brandon Taylor. A simple hitch pass turned into a game breaker when Carter failed to tackle Jones on the sideline. It was his second touchdown in the last 17 games.

That's why it's clear that its defense will get Alabama to whatever heights it is going to reach this season. That and Ingram, who Saban finally discovered in the second half. Sixteen of Ingram's 22 carries and 106 of his 144 yards came after the coaches wised up and started pounding their best, and pretty much only, offensive weapon.

Yes, Daniel, even though the Tide are still on track for greatness, they also can be defined by how McElroy's pass to Jones was ruled late in the game.

Incomplete.

 

[Argo]

I really wish they would have given the interception to LSU.  There wasn't a chance in hell that Jarret Lee, without super strong Charles Scott, would have drove the field and scored a touchdown to tie the game.  I knew as soon as they didn't turn it over, we would have to hear this bullshit.

[AUsweetheart]

 

just stop cheatin, bama.

[War Eagle!!!]

I really wish they would have given the interception to LSU.  There wasn't a chance in hell that Jarret Lee, without super strong Charles Scott, would have drove the field and scored a touchdown to tie the game.  I knew as soon as they didn't turn it over, we would have to hear this bullshit.

I agree, the game was over when Scott went out. Scott was running on you guys. That dude is a stud. I think it would have been a different game with Scott in there. They may have gotten the 4th down in AL territory with Scott, that would have put them close to FG range.

Doesn't matter though, that's part of the game...

But the call was bullshit. AND, the movement penalty on LSU on the AL 40 yard line was a bit strange too. That was a big play in the game and instead of 4th and inches, it made it 4th and 5. If dude moved, he moved a half second before the ball was snapped. It was pretty close...

[AUChizad]

How Julio got the 75 yard play that finally lived up to some of his hype:

[The Prowler]

How Julio got the 75 yard play that finally lived up to some of his hype:

Wow and this whole time I thought Juicio had juked him to the turf.....guess I was wrong.

[Townhallsavoy]

How Julio got the 75 yard play that finally lived up to some of his hype:

I'm not sure what's better - it being the "Play of the Game" or the fact that "Out'back'" was sponsoring it. 

[Kaos]

I don't think there's any question at this point that the ESPN contract has influenced the outcome of games.

ESPN gets bigger ratings and more money if the sacred cows survive.  It isn't in the network's best financial interest for Florida or Alabama to lose at this point of the season.  Just imagine if the Tide had lost to LSU and to Tennessee and Florida had fallen to Arkansas.  You'd have the likelihood of a Texas vs. Boise/Cincinnati BCS title game.  That's not going to generate the kind of ratings ESPN, with its kabillion-dollar SEC contract needs down the stretch. 

The network can't dictate outcomes directly, but it can -- and in my opinion clearly does -- influence the officiating.

When/if Auburn bursts out of the gate and is the front-runner, the Tigers will get the same protection. 

Even so, it's sickening.  Utterly sickening. 

[Argo]

Looks totally different in motion.  Almost like he blocked him from the side, as he was going by, which is a legal block.

[The Prowler]

Looks totally different in motion.  Almost like he blocked him from the side, as he was going by, which is a legal block.

actually, no.  It doesn't look any different, except that in the still shot it looks like Carpenter is pushing him down, from the video it looks like he just put his hands on his back and the Safety was already leaning.

[RWS]

actually, no.  It doesn't look any different, except that in the still shot it looks like Carpenter is pushing him down, from the video it looks like he just put his hands on his back and the Safety was already leaning.

For that matter, it damn near looks as if the defender was pushed directly towards Julio.

[AUChizad]

[AUChizad]

http://www.theonion.com/content/news_briefs/sec_replay_official

TUSCALOOSA, AL—A Southeastern Conference replay official conducting a video review of a sideline catch during the Alabama-Tennessee game Saturday overturned Roe v. Wade, the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court ruling granting women the right to abortions. "Well, I certainly don't know what the refs were looking at down on the field to make that call," CBS analyst Gary Danielson said moments after the controversial ruling came in. "A woman's right to choose her reproductive future is clearly covered by the constitutional right to privacy, and that guy certainly didn't have control of the ball when he went out of bounds." Confirming the conference stood by the decision, an SEC spokesperson also said that officials would be disciplined for last week's Florida–Mississippi State game, in which a "grave error" was made when a replay call upheld both a Florida touchdown in which the ballcarrier had clearly fumbled before crossing the goal line and Brown v. Board of Education.

[CCTAU]

For that matter, it damn near looks as if the defender was pushed directly towards Julio.

Safeties are not as good at coverage. Most of their action is dropping back deep or coming up quick for run coverage. CBs know that you have to play from the outside in to get containment. This safety took a horrible path to the ball which led to an inside out path. That was all that JJ needed to get around him. Had the safety took an outside in path, JJ would have been dodging LBs. They are much harder to dodge. Totally shitty coverage by the safety. But that is what you look for; either a mistake in alignment or execution, then you make them pay. JJ made them pay. 

[Saniflush]

Safeties are not as good at coverage. Most of their action is dropping back deep or coming up quick for run coverage. CBs know that you have to play from the outside in to get containment. This safety took a horrible path to the ball which led to an inside out path. That was all that JJ needed to get around him. Had the safety took an outside in path, JJ would have been dodging LBs. They are much harder to dodge. Totally shitty coverage by the safety. But that is what you look for; either a mistake in alignment or execution, then you make them pay. JJ made them pay. 

And in turn JJ gets paid.  It's cyclic.

[CCTAU]

And in turn JJ gets paid.  It's cyclic.

Well, if he's paid per score, he's one starving bitch this season.

[RWS]

I doubt any of you were whining and crying after the 2006 LSU vs AU game....



Its ok when a bad call helps your team. But when it helps your rival win the SEC West, then its total bullshit.

[AUChizad]

Its ok when a bad call helps your team. But when it helps your rival win the SEC West, then its total bullshit.

Cause it's only those pesky barners saying this was a horrible call...as evidenced by the multiple national columns/blogs credited in this thread...

[Snaggletiger]

Weak sauce RWS.