At the beginning of the season while watching one of the pre-game shows, one of the announcers said that Nebraska would be lucky if any close officiating call would go their way all season during a Big-12 game. It didn't mean much at the time, but as the season rolls on, I'm beginning to see how prophetic that statement was. I've been a Husker fan since 1962, through the good and bad times, the great and "Callahan" years, and I have to admit to a certain amount of partiality when it comes to officiating. Like many true college football fans, I rejoiced when the current review system was initiated, thinking we would finally see a more fair and balanced system.
College level officials still are comprised mainly of fairly well to do men who can afford to take time to be away from their regular jobs and live vicariously in this part time activity. They are NOT PROFESSIONALS, and they are HUMAN, which means they make MISTAKES, and they have PERSONAL BIAS as well. Most of them are not in the kind of shape they once were or SHOULD BE and are most often OUT OF POSITION to make accurate calls.
All that having been said, this has been the absolutely worst year of BIG 8, and subsequently BIG 12 officiating I have ever seen. There is HOLDING by both teams on every since play, so calling that infraction becomes purely arbitrary. When it is called 70% of the time on one team, questions begin to arise. There are current concerns about injuries occurring from helmet to helmet contact. There is a simple solution. INSTANT EJECTION for the offending player. You don't call that on one player and then let it slide when it occurs 2 minutes later from a member of the other teams defense. If INSTANT EJECTION was used, perhaps coaches would stop "coaching" it as a means of dislodging a ball from a player.
And you don't really have to have a degree in rocket science to know when a player's forward motion is stopped. When six defensive players are holding the runner in such a way that he can't FALL DOWN while they rip the ball from his hands, do we really think that's a FUMBLE ?? Just because the player's legs are churning doesn't mean he's got forward momentum. And how much time should elapse after a player is on the ground before a whistle is blown ? Can't he be DOWN without a knee or elbow physically touching the ground ? A look at ACL injuries will clarify that question very quickly.
We really need to take a closer look at officiating in a world where BIG BIG MONEY is involved in college football. I'm not suggesting for a second that officials intentionally favor one team over another, but I am suggesting that Nebraska has had more than their share of call go against them this year and some of them have been quite blatant.
I have one more comment before climbing down off my soapbox. Does anyone else feel there is another sports announcer alive who can ruin a good football game like Brent Musberger ? :-) I am so sick of this tired old windbag and his anti-Nebraska harping. Not that it's only Nebraska. Brent has nothing good to say about whoever is on the field against Oklahoma, Southern Cal, Ohio State, Penn State, Florida State. He is the greatest cheerleader on the air. Let's all drop ABC an email and ask them politely to put this old workhorse out to pasture where he belongs where he can share his glory days of standing next to Roger Maris at a urinal in Yankee Stadium once or how his Grandson played in the same Pop Warner league as Joe Namath's bartender kid. Hang it up Brent......