Officiating in the SEC/CFB

[goldvol]

The offside/ false start call was a big mistake for me. instead of 2nd and 5, should have been 2nd and 15 for alabama. That is a huge difference.
Also, when Alabama were trying to substitute in the chaos, there should have been an unsportsmanlike penalty on the staff for literally pushing a sideline player into the field of play to pretend to be injured.
Good "no-call" on the off-setting unsportmanlike at the end, since we just talked quietly and then got punched in the helmet.
There was at least 1 pass interference where they ran into the defender, if I remember correctly. should have been a not call.

 

[SayUWantAreVOLution]

Wrong. It may be taught, but its still holding if they grab with their hands. The rules say the palm must remain open and cannot be used to grasp an opponent.

Copied straight from the NCAA rule book

Holding and Use of Hands or Arms: Offense
ARTICLE 3. a. Use of Hands. A teammate of a ball carrier or a passer legally may block with their shoulders, their hands, the outer surface of their arms or any other part of their body under the following provisions.
1. The hand(s) shall bea) In advance of the elbow.(b) Inside the frame of the opponent’s body (Exception: When the opponent turns their back to the blocker) (A.R. 9-3-3-VI and VII).(c) At or below the shoulder(s) of the blocker and the opponent(Exception: When the opponent squats, ducks or submarines).(d) Apart and never in a locked position.
2. The hand(s) shall be open with the palm(s) facing the frame of the opponent or closed or cupped with the palms not facing the opponent(A.R. 9-3-3-I-IV and VI-VIII).b. Holding. The hand(s) and arm(s) shall not be used to grasp, pull, hook,clamp or encircle in any way that illegally impedes or illegally obstructs an opponent.
PENALTY—10 yards Penalties for Team A fouls behind the neutral zone are enforced from the previous spot. Safety if the foul occurs behind Team A’s goal line [S42].

I know the rule. And yes, 1000 yeses, it's "against the rules" but ask your coach: stay inside the pads, don't judo throw him, use your legs mostly to drive and your hands to keep him in front of you. Don't keep grabbing if he gets away from you and they won't call it.

Hell's Bells, every coach in America breaks the "coaching box and stay off the field rules" nearly every play. They're not calling that either.

Like life, there's rules and there's reality. The reality is: inside the pads and let go if you get beat.

 

[njvols]

I believe that part of the problem is their pregame ritual. They watch film and prepare.

If Campbell was called for 3 holds last game they label him in their mind as a hold offender and watch him Extra during game. If Bama is expected to have better receivers they expect Tennessee to PI when the receiver misses the catch. If Tennessee receiver drops ball after UGA PI it was actually cause the Safety is a great player and squirrel tends to drop passes.

This is part of the problem for the bias in officiating in my opinion.

You can precondition your mind how things will go before the game..



While watching film may help us with judgement, positioning and more as officials, it also provides us with an opportunity to learn about the habits and tendencies of coaches and players we will encounter.

Absolutely. Just like this past year when Tennessee played Purdue in basketball, their coach was crying pregame about how everyone filed their big man. And I think that led to many unnecessary fouls called on Tennessee.

 

[CPVOL]

The SEC guys have been at this a while. They’re “tenured” if you will - if only in their minds. So many calls are bang-bang and I don’t think anyone expects perfection 100% of the time. But the first down they gifted Bama when Milroe wasn’t even close is what I can’t understand. If you and I can see he’s a half yard short on our $300 smart TV, why can’t the SEC crew watching from command central see that? Why cant they see the line judge waffled in and just placed the ball where it felt good? He had no idea where the spot was. And the reason they do it you ask? Because they think they’re untouchable. How else do you explain the Ga-Texas call ? Just make some stuff up and we’re golden…….

 

[ButchPlz]

The SEC guys have been at this a while. They’re “tenured” if you will - if only in their minds. So many calls are bang-bang and I don’t think anyone expects perfection 100% of the time. But the first down they gifted Bama when Milroe wasn’t even close is what I can’t understand. If you and I can see he’s a half yard short on our $300 smart TV, why can’t the SEC crew watching from command central see that? Why cant they see the line judge waffled in and just placed the ball where it felt good? He had no idea where the spot was. And the reason they do it you ask? Because they think they’re untouchable. How else do you explain the Ga-Texas call ? Just make some stuff up and we’re golden…….

To be fair the very top of the crown of his head barely grazed the first down line, so Bubba the side judge just assumed he made it.

 

[VOLfrombama]

I know the rule. And yes, 1000 yeses, it's "against the rules" but ask your coach: stay inside the pads, don't judo throw him, use your legs mostly to drive and your hands to keep him in front of you. Don't keep grabbing if he gets away from you and they won't call it.

Hell's Bells, every coach in America breaks the "coaching box and stay off the field rules" nearly every play. They're not calling that either.

Like life, there's rules and there's reality. The reality is: inside the pads and let go if you get beat.

Which is why i said the refs have to CHOOSE when to throw a flag because the reality is there's a penalty on every play that could be called.

This is the problem with officiating. Its purely subjective and based on the interpretation of a person who has the authority to do whatever they think is best at the time they feel it's appropriate. Nobody is ever going to agree on the application of the rules because it's never consistent due to the subjectivity and interpretation of each ref.

 

[Dadof2Vols]

To be fair the very top of the crown of his head barely grazed the first down line, so Bubba the side judge just assumed he made it.

He must have cause he is Bama

 

[Tennman]

Let's discuss. What has resulted in the officiating being so bad over the last few years? I can't recall a time when there have been so many terrible decisions on non-reviewable plays. Even as many penalties as Bama had they probably should have had five or six more that were instead called on us (thinking specifically on the off sides and then the ridiculous PI). And then the cluster F during the Texas/UGA game where it seems like these types of calls are happening with more and more frequency. So, it's left me wondering...

Has replay made refs lazy?

Or has the game gotten too fast for officiating to be trained like it's always been?

Something needs to change, because this stuff just keeps getting worse. And somehow we always seems to be the ones on the wrong side of them.

I know many many men who I officiated with from the park and rec up to small college level, who were excellent referees/umpires. Like myself many did not have the money to attend the "camps" where one gets noticed to move up. The SEC recruits from other conferences, but to get into that level, you gotta $

 

[SayUWantAreVOLution]

Which is why i said the refs have to CHOOSE when to throw a flag because the reality is there's a penalty on every play that could be called.

This is the problem with officiating. Its purely subjective and based on the interpretation of a person who has the authority to do whatever they think is best at the time they feel it's appropriate. Nobody is ever going to agree on the application of the rules because it's never consistent due to the subjectivity and interpretation of each ref.

They're simply NEVER throwing flags for coaches being where they shouldn't until it is warned, ignored, warned, or simply egregious. I'd go crazy if they threw that flag regularly.

As for linemen, it is the unwritten "don't be an idiot about it" rule that everyone knows. There are examples of uncalled complete tackles by linemen I'll agree with you about but if they start calling grabbing the numbers, especially on centers and guards...... the universe might collapse.

The bottom line is that the money of the game, which makes a lot of money for a lot of people, is passing the refs by. Just like it did with players, if the money isn't there legally, it will be illegally. The NCAA should realize this.

 

[VolFanNC09]

I understand Bama’s frustration. I have it every week. This game had a lot of penalties and a lot of missed calls. I thought it was evenly bad. I am just glad they actually called holding against Bama finally. I don’t remember seeing them call holding in past 5 years against them when we play them.

 

[KoachKrab127]

I’m watching the Bama game now because I wasn’t able to on Saturday. I noticed in the 2nd quarter, on the same play, the refs missed a delay of game and a false start on Bama. Luckily, we got a sack, so it didn’t matter. But seriously…how do you miss two penalties on one play? The announcers agreed it should have been a delay of game.

 

[KoachKrab127]

I also noticed with about 6 minutes left in the 3rd quarter, Milroe was going to get sacked, so he threw the ball away. He was outside the pocket, but the pass did not go past the line of scrimmage. That should have been intentional grounding, right?

Then on the play directly after that, our d-lineman flinched before the snap, causing the offensive lineman to flinch. Our d-lineman did not even come close to going offsides, but they called offsides on us. I know that the new rule says the d-linemen cannot do any kind of multiple shifts before the snap to make the o-line react, but that's not what happened here. Plus, isn't that supposed to be called a delay or game or defensive false start? Not offsides, because he wasn't offsides. That doesn't make sense.

Then on the next drive, right after Nico made the long pass to Thornton, the Alabama defense was not letting Tennessee snap the ball. They were actually standing on top of the ball so the center couldn't get set. I've never seen that before. Is that not some kind of penalty?

On the next drive, the refs called a facemask on our DB, but the Bama ball carrier had his hand in our DB's facemask as well, actually a worse offense that what our DB was doing.