officiating debacle in San Antonio
Come bowl season I'm often torn. You see, I'm an Ohio State fan. They're my 2nd-favorite team, after Texas. But that also makes me something of a Big Ten man. And so for each of the last 31 years, I've had to ask myself - do I root for Michigan and the conference, or against them out of Spite? Often I end up rooting for them, such as when they play Tennessee or someone else that I hate for reasons other than being the rival of my second-favorite team. Such was the case this year that I wanted to see UM win this game... more because I had 24 points riding on this game for ESPN Bowl Mania in my computer-generated pickset (whose only other miss came when Nevada beat UCF... and how? On a missed call in OT when Nevada fumbled the ball away but it wasn't seen.) and hey they helped my Horns by beating Penn State.
I'm also something of a Big XII man. The Texas Longhorns are my favorite team. As a kid I loved watching Nebraska play and run that option offense. To this day, I believe 97 Nebraska would have steamrolled 97 Michigan with an explosive running game that would have made Heisman winning *cornerback* Charles Woodson's coverage skills a nonfactor and a defense that was better than it was given credit for being, and I believe that 95 Nebraska would steamroll any team that has ever played college football, perhaps with the exception of that 01 Miami team that produced a host of NFL superstars and beat opponents by an average score of 42-9.
Point is, while I had a slight interest in Michigan winning this game, I actually like Nebraska a lot more than I like Michigan, and I don't really have a reason to be upset that UM lost.
So it says a little something that I of all people would not just find the officiating of the Alamo Bowl to be terrible, but that I am outright incensed by the poor excuse for an officiating crew that the Sun Belt Conference provided for these two elite programs, the winningest and fourth-winningest of all-time. This wasn't Yep We Really Are A University and Bet You Didn't Know We Have A School Tech squaring off in the first ever Who Gives A Rats Ass Bowl. This was Michigan. This was Nebraska. Even if both teams were 7-4 this year and only one of them was even ranked at all, this is a bowl that means something, folks.
Ordinarily... no, always, up until now... I've said that officiating may influence the outcome of a game, but it doesn't determine it. Tonight I'm going back on that. With the sheet volume of horrible calls, noncalls, clock operator mistakes, and replay mishaps resulting in forced timeouts wasted, the referees turned this bowl game from a Michigan win into a Nebraska win. I don't mean to take away from the incredible effort of the Nebraska players - I expected this game to be a blowout, and the refs had nothing to do with the closeness of this game; that was the heart and timely play of the Cornhuskers. But the facts are simple. This game ended with Nebraska leading by four and Michigan advancing the ball to the NU 13. Had the game been properly officiated:
* On one of their drives early in the 4th quarter, Michigan would have been credited with a completed pass of ~10 yards in addition to a roughing the passer penalty on Nebraska, resulting in a first and goal. This drive ended with a Henne interception from around the 20 into the end zone. (interestingly, a play originally ruled incomplete but that was actually reviewed and overturned - which it should have been)
* Michigan would have had first and goal with 2:20 to go, after Manningham was clearly interfered with.
* Michigan would have had two timeouts, probably saving them a minute of clock time on Nebraska's final possession and thus giving them somewhere in the neighborhood of 1:10 to work with on the final drive, not six or seven seconds. These "replay timeouts" that Carr was forced to burn and the above missed PI were unquestionably the three biggest errors of the game.
* Even without those timeouts, about ten seconds ran off the clock between the time the ball was spotted for Nebraska's fourth down and the time the play clock started running. That's two lost plays for Michigan... two plays that could have gained 20 yards and been the difference between their final play trickery scoring vs coming up just short.
* Nebraska would have been penalized for their team running out onto the field during Michigan's final desparation play. Key here: the half cannot end on a defensive penalty. They would have had one more down somewhere inside the Nebraska 10, depending on what the yardage for that is. Hey it's a close range shot at the end zone.
The middle two asterisked points were just too much for the Wolverines to overcome. Given four tries on first and goal and in addition to that, another drive with over 1:00 on the clock if that previous set had failed, I believe Michigan would have put a TD on the board. Particularly that first and goal they should have had... Nebraska was not even slowing down Hart on that drive.
Now maybe Nebraska would have scored again to make it 39-35, who knows. They had all 3 TOs remaining so it is certainly possible. And again I don't mean to take anything away from the Huskers kids. But this was simply the worst officiating I have EVER seen in a game of any sport at the collegiate or professional level. It wasn't favoritism; it was just pathetic lack of quality. It was clear to me that the Sun Belt officials were just not used to officiating a game played as fast as this one. They are used to a lower quality of play between lower caliber teams; it would be like asking ACC officials to suddenly go officiate a game between NFL teams. Even if they played the game by college rules, the refs would be a little thrown off by the difference in play. (I believe this affected the replay decisions as well as the Michigan catch that was ruled incomplete, possibly even the PI if they are not used to having to watch DBs that closely.) Though while we're on the topic of different rules, it's worth noting that every BCS conference uses slightly different replay rules and that the Sun Belt didn't even use replay. Next season the NCAA must standardize the replay rules in August so that these kind of mistakes aren't happening in December and January.
So here's a message to the NCAA. Remember the Alamo Bowl. Only seasoned officiating crews from BCS conferences should be used for officiating bowl games, period. Or if you're going to let the Sun Belt officiate two games since they had two bowl teams last year (which makes no sense to begin with - why should that even matter how many teams they had last year), then please to it in early bowls between low-profile teams that nobody really cares about. Like the Who Gives A Rats Ass Bowl... that would be the perfect place for the Sun Belt Conference to show the nation that their officials are as pathetic as their programs. Just not during a game like this one.