The officiating crew from the Arkansas - Florida game was suspended due to screwing up some calls.
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=4583642Quote:
Crew removed from Oct. 31 game
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Associated Press
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- The Southeastern Conference has suspended officials from last weekend's Arkansas-Florida game after the crew was involved in its second controversial call of the year.
Referee Marc Curles' crew called a personal foul on Arkansas defensive lineman Malcolm Sheppard in the fourth quarter as the Gators were rallying for a 23-20 victory. The league said there was no video evidence to support the call.
Fish: Shouldering The Blame
Marc Curles, who blew the call in the Arkansas-Florida game, owns up to the boo-boo, writes Mike Fish. Story
The same group of officials called the LSU-Georgia game earlier this month, which included a late unsportsmanlike conduct penalty the league said shouldn't have been called.
"A series of calls that have occurred during the last several weeks have not been to the standard that we expect from our officiating crews," SEC commissioner Mike Slive said Wednesday. "I believe our officiating program is the best in the country. However, there are times when these actions must be taken."
SEC associate commissioner Charles Bloom said this is the first time the league has publicly suspended a football crew like this.
The SEC says the crew will be removed from its next scheduled assignment Oct. 31 and will not be assigned to officiate as a crew until Nov. 14.
The league said the crew's bowl assignments could also be impacted.
"The entire crew shoulders responsibility for each play. I have taken this action because there must be accountability in our officiating program," Slive said. "Our institutions expect the highest level of officiating in all of our sports and it is the duty of the conference office to uphold that expectation."
Arkansas coach Bobby Petrino said in a statement: "We took the appropriate steps to address any issues we had with the league regarding this matter earlier in the week. Our focus as a football team has been and remains on this weekend's game against Ole Miss."
There are some Youtube videos out there showing the call (can't find it from work). The one I saw showed three different calls in question. The first was a passing interference call that was clearly incorrect. The Florida pass was well underthrown, and the defender is trying to turn around to the ball, while the receiver is nearly climbing over the guy to get back to the ball. The ref called it defensive pass interference. Really horrible call.
But it was nothing to the one that I think caused this suspension. There was a Florida offensive lineman and an Arkansas defensive lineman well away from the play (the play was nearing completion over on the far sideline, while they were midfield). The Arkansas defensive lineman was jogging over to the play, when the Florida offensive lineman comes gunning right for him. The defensive lineman sees him coming and lowers his sholder and lays the offensive lineman out. The ref called a penalty on the defensive lineman who was clearly only defending himself. It clearly should have been a penalty against the offensive lineman, even though he got the worse end of the exchange.
The third one was an issue with the spot. Ref called it a Florida first down, even though it appeared he was a full yard short...that is until you ignore the yellow line the TV broadcast puts on there, and look at where the actual 1st down marker is on the sidelines. Then you notice that the yellow line was what was off by a yard, not the spot.
But yeah, the first two calls were horrible. K-State also had a really horrible passing interference called on them, but we were up 59-0 at that point, so nobody bothered to complain that much. A&M had the ball, he let loose with a pass that was a perfect spiral, until it hit the line of scrimmage where it was obviously tipped, as it all of the sudden started wobbling wildly. The K-State DB saw the ball tipped and did the exact right thing and grabbed onto his receiver. They called passing interferece, K-State challenged it, and the replay officials upheld the call, charging K-State with a timeout. Truly baffling call, as the tip was impossible to miss, just by looking at the ball. But yeah, no one really cared, as the game was over by that point.
It sucks for Arkansas though, as their game was very close, and those two calls very well could have made the difference.
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