Judgment may fall on non-BCS refs

[Sonny]

Interesting article on officiating from the past bowl system.

Judgment may fall on non-BCS refs
Recent errors could sideline them for biggest of bowl games

11:50 PM CST on Sunday, January 15, 2006
By JEFF MILLER / The Dallas Morning News

The American Football Coaches Association emptied out of the Hilton Anatole a few days ago after its convention without formally pursuing changes to the way that game officials are assigned to NCAA Division I-A bowls. That doesn't mean member conferences or their schools soon won't raise a question.

"It might have already been asked," Minnesota coach Glen Mason said.

The issue is whether officials from the five conferences not affiliated with the Bowl Championship Series should work bowls that match opponents from two of the six BCS leagues, which include the Big 12. Those bowls, including the AT&T Cotton Bowl Classic, usually feature the highest-profile matchups outside the four-bowl championship rotation.

Michigan officials were upset about the Sun Belt Conference crew that worked their MasterCard Alamo Bowl loss to Nebraska.

After Florida's seven-point win over Iowa in the Outback Bowl, the head of officiating for Conference USA admitted his crew made a controversial mistake in the closing minutes.

Most of the complaints dealt with instant replay. The Sun Belt was one of two Division I-A conferences not to use replay during the season.

Dennis Poppe, the NCAA's managing director for football, said during the AFCA convention that the issue probably will be raised in upcoming meetings that involve all of the conferences. He questioned how the system could be changed to satisfy critics; that presumably would mean either using more officials from each BCS league or having the same number of BCS officials work multiple games instead of one.

Bobby Gaston, director of officiating for the Southeastern Conference, said non-BCS leagues often are feeders for crews in BCS leagues.

He said most BCS conferences would express concern for using game officials from non-BCS leagues in their bowls, "if they would speak out and tell the truth," Gaston said from the league office in Birmingham, Ala.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent ... 44f31.html

[shrekjr]

I saw this article and don't particularly like it. They are saying their conferences and regions of the country have better teams, therefore, the officials are better. I will admit there were some questionable calls in games officiated by non-BCS conference crews, but no more so than calls made in games by BCS conference officials. This only became an issue in a high profile game (Alamo Bowl) being played by a couple of also-rans in their respective conferences. Had there not been equipment malfuntions with the replay system, the majority of the complaints from this game never would have occured. The big problem is the crew in that game did make one (or several) mistakes on the last play of the game that only served to increase the perception of problems earlier in the game. Had the last play not happened like it did, all the discussions would be focused on how to fix the broken replay system.