Quote:

---

I'm a little curious how NIL is involved with the downfall of officiating.

---

NIL makes college football into a winner take all race for 9-figure budgets. If ADs connect the dots between <fill in the blank 1> and substantial increases in $$$, as evidenced elsewhere by <fill in the blank 2>, pre-existing notions of fairness like <fill in the blank 3> go out the window.

Case 1: (sip & 0u joining the SEC), (A&M joining the SEC), (the long-standing SEC "gentlemen's agreement")
Case 2: (provocatively bad officiating), (the WWE, NBA, FIFA, ...), (uh, the fundamental idea behind athletic competition...)

GrapevineAg said:

---

I think I'm over replay. On the whole, it doesn't fix all of the bad calls and it draws the games out longer. But, my biggest problem with it is that decisions are made by persons in places we cannot see: the replay booth, Birmingham (SEC), Toronto (NHL), New York City (NHL), etc. We can see and identify the on-field officials, and we can even observe a bit of their discussions. My wish is that referees would be mic'd up the way the XFL did it. Let us hear their discussions; make everything as transparent as possible.

---

I agree on the transparency but disagree on being over replay. Hell, I think it isn't utilized enough. The fact that the call on field holds so much weight is asinine to me. You could have an official, who missed the play, make a call and it overrule 5 camera angles because you just don't know for sure. To me this is more relevant in baseball, but still applies to football. For example, zero reason replay shouldn't have been used to correctly rule the fumble in the LSU game two years ago.

I do think replay is far too slow. Don't pay a lot of attention to the nfl so not sure of what they did, but they had replay reviews done before the teams even got to the line to huddle in the playoffs this year.

I believe the way replay is used, it brings limited value to the game.

If the call is confirmed, no change from the on field call.

If the call stands, no change from the on field call.

Only overrule changes anything. Not sure what the numbers would show, but it seems booth overrule calls are in the minority.

Meximan said:

---

Literally nobody is happy with the state of officiating, particularly not SEC officiating. These guys need to be full time conference employees getting a cool $80k to $120k or whatever and do nothing but train and study and watch tape of teams so they know how they play before they see them, so they know what to let go and what to actually focus on. There's far too much "A&M has a history of targeting so let's just call every big hit a target and go from there" going on.

---

I heard the same griping and moaning in the SWC days about the SWC refs, then the big 12 refs, now the SEC refs. If we were to go to an ABC conference it would be the same thing. This is the same old BS!!!!

Wouldn't want more replay unless they can speed up the process.

If the games get any longer, I won't be awake to see the ending anyway.

Replay should be anticipating challenges and checking all the angles as soon as the flag is thrown. Add staff to the booth if they need to.

Microwave Onions said:

---

Wouldn't want more replay unless they can speed up the process.

If the games get any longer, I won't be awake to see the ending anyway.

Replay should be anticipating challenges and checking all the angles as soon as the flag is thrown. Add staff to the booth if they need to.

---

100%. And I think they can. Replays in the nfl playoffs took seconds.

And, fwiw, I agree game length is ruining the sport but it's 100% because of commercials. Even with replays. It may be a 60 second replay but you better believe espn is going to get 3 minutes of commercials out of it.

I'd like to see a rule where each team can require a review of one play per game for any reason whatsoever (even if it is something that normally wouldn't be reviewable).

I also think adopting an oversight group of the officials like they do in MLB, assessing official performance, incorporating training and retraining requirements, and adding in a fine system for egregious calls/non-calls could clean up quite a few things.

Family Feud: Name a sports league where the highest levels of competition are often decided by officiation

I'd say either FIFA or WCW but those are only #2 and #3, respectively.

After Sunday, the #1 answer is, without a doubt, the NFL.

GigEmLaw said:

---

I'd like to see a rule where each team can require a review of one play per game for any reason whatsoever (even if it is something that normally wouldn't be reviewable).

I also think adopting an oversight group of the officials like they do in MLB, assessing official performance, incorporating training and retraining requirements, and adding in a fine system for egregious calls/non-calls could clean up quite a few things.

---

Officials DO have assessments every single game they are a part of. They get graded out for their performance on a play by play and game by game basis. The SEC discusses with them as a group on Sundays of what went good, what was controversial and even what had to be overturned by replay at every SEC game that week. None of them want to be called out for missing a call or making a bad call either.

So these guys aren't just leaving their job at 5:00 on Friday and rushing to make it out of town to show up for kickoffs then head back home to kickback on their couches.

They put it time prior to, during and after each game. They want to be "correct" for their own job security, the fairness to the game, not to a favored school, and certainly not for some payoff to "help" a team on the field win a game. (sip ref has always been suspect in my eyes however)
They also have meetings during off season as well. They put in way more time than you think.

*They also don't call the game of the schools they attended (usually).

Fact is that they are gonna miss some at live speed that look different in slow motion on tv……. but they get the vast majority of calls right!