GO FOR 2

Ben Hill Griffin Stadium - Beware Refs... (Courtesy of Chris Bohn - Flickr CCL)

Sticking with our theme of poor officiating, we now turn to the SEC and Sunday’s showdown between Arkansas and Florida. The crew made several poor calls during the game, but the kicker here is that its the second time this particular crew has garnered attention for making bad calls this year. So the solution? The SEC is going Ed Hochuli on their asses and sitting them down for a game.

 Now this may not sound like a big issue, but this is the first time ever that the SEC has publicly suspended an officiating crew. Since the crew will miss its upcoming October 31 game (spooky, right?) the officials will not see the field as a crew until November 14.

What caused this? well a rash of pretty questionable small calls throughout the game, but a massively ridiculous unsportsmanlike conduct penalty late in the game (against Arkansas) while Florida was rallying is what garnered the most attention. Now, while you can’t say this call cost the Razorbacks the game (no one call ever does), it is interesting that it seemed to benefit Florida in their hour of need. Michael Wilbon suggested this afternoon that there’s a reason so many penalties lately have been favoring the team which draws big attention and big television ratings (Florida, NY Yankees, Etc…)  Wilbon isn’t suggesting that anyone is being paid off here, he’s just saying that subconsciously refs tend to favor the ’star’ team. Not only does this make sense, it makes perfect sense. Ever heard of the NBA? Ever notice how Kobe or LeBron gets the call at the rim almost every time? It’s because the officials just have this tendency to lean toward the star power when in doubt. Im not at all shocked that this takes place outside the NBA (and the rouging the passer calls against Tom Brady 2 weeks ago are living proof that the NFL swings this way).

So who sees the upcoming problem? Refs tend to favor the star teams a little, maybe that leads to some controversial calls when you go back and look over the game film. Well the SEC’s actions are showing that the league is afraid of being seen as favoring a star team…the SEC is almost guaranteed to get itself into a situation where it only suspends and reprimands refs who screw up when a big name team is involved. So when a crew screws up a Mississippi State – Kentucky matchup, and the SEC does nothing, those schools are going to flip about the unfair treatment.

Think the SEC just opened Pandora’s Box? There’s a good chance…good luck closing it.