(10-10-2020 08:16 PM)bullet Wrote:  

(10-10-2020 08:02 PM)JRsec Wrote:  

(10-10-2020 07:52 PM)bullet Wrote:  

(10-10-2020 07:40 PM)JRsec Wrote:  

(10-10-2020 06:52 PM)quo vadis Wrote:  To me, that was clearly a fumble. A backward spike is a fumble. Problem was, nobody recoverd it until well after the whistle blew so you couldn't give ARK the ball.

Here's the deal. It was a backwards pass and therefore a fumble, but it was finally recovered by Auburn, but after the whistle blew. If a lateral fumble the whistle should not have blown and Auburn would have had the ball with under 20 seconds and clock running 8 yards back of where it was spotted. Nix would then have had to spike the ball and Carlson's kick would have been 8 yards longer and rushed.

I think the officials blew the call twice on one play because they blew the whistle and then decided to call it a grounding. Then to make matters worse they ran 10 seconds off of the clock which Arkansas could have declined and had 17 seconds after the kick instead of 7. Because they blew the whistle they couldn't call it a fumble. So two blown calls on one play and then they forgot to ask Arkansas if they wanted to decline the runoff since it was their option on the penalty.

And it was reviewed by instant replay. If we are correct, that is just inexcusable that they didn't know the rules. The Arkansas coach was telling them it was a fumble so they knew the issue.

If you got instant replay, the guy can look up the rulebook.

When sports betting on college football was legalized we had massive retirements by SEC officials who had years of experience. They simply didn't want to deal with outside pressure when calling games or subject their families to it.

Now we have a crap load of officials with only 2 years experience and it is showing across the conference. I say it is absolutely the fault of legalized college sports betting. I've noticed this year already the number of games across all of the conferences where the school with the heavy money on them fails to cover the spread. I don't think this is an accident. I'm not sure if that figured into the Arkansas / Auburn game because the heavy money should have been on the Hogs with a 16.5 spread. But clearly they didn't know the rules, but adding to the viewer's confusion is the ESPN announcers didn't know the rules either and didn't catch a couple of the mistakes, like the premature whistle and Arkansas's option to decline.

In the Georgia / Tennessee game the announcers tried to create controversy where there was none on Georgia's pass to the Tennessee 1 where they tried to say the pass was incomplete when the receiver who had taken steps with the pass dropped the ball hitting the ground out of bounds. They reviewed it twice before getting the correct ruling.

But the officiating across the SEC is weak right now. Not as bad as PAC officials or some ACC officials but pretty bad. Right now I'd say the Big 10 has the most consistent officiating.

In the Texas/OU game it seemed like someone was paying the replay official. They called it after a UT first down in the red zone that was an obvious catch and the guy was 2 yards beyond the FD marker. But it gave the OU defense a rest. Texas still scored. Then in OT they did the same thing when there was no doubt. Again Texas scored anyway, but they were giving the OU defense a break. They overruled a Texas catch earlier in the game that could easily have gone either way. Should have been a ruling stands whichever way the ref had called it. They didn't even review an OU FD catch that on replay was pretty clearly not controlled until he was 5 yards out of bounds. Couldn't blame the refs because it was a bang/bang play and I thought it was a catch live, but you could see him bobbling it on replay.

Replay is the bookie's friend. It's how hey control the NFL and make it appear fair. They only blow a call when it is necessary for the spread and most of the game is controlled with holding and pass interference calls. Targeting's expulsions also helps handicap games in progress. I hate the damned rule for that reason. With replay available no play should be blown dead where a possession is in question.