SEC ref rant

[Excel]

And SEC refs share in this money grab how? You think they are paid to throw games? Or penalized by not getting games if they don't? Yeah, it's inarguable, all right.

What happens if you blatantly ignore what your boss tells you to do? Is it that hard to imagine what would happen to officials if they didn't fix games? It's the same thing we saw in the Big XII. To say that it doesn't happen is really just naive. There's so much money involved that it would honestly be stupid not to fix games. It's a shame, but that's what it's about.

If my boss (especially for a part-time gig like this) tells me to do something clearly immoral if not illegal, I would be going to the press and breaking this story wide open, or making money writing a book about it.

Exactly, we would've heard something by now and with the level of competition and hatred we see in the SEC you can bet your a$$ one school would pay a ref heaps for any hint of a story that would tarnish the reputations and records of their rivals...Auburn and Mississppi state say hi.

The bottom line is that while, as any Conference fan will tell you, SEC officials make some mighty poor calls and miss some pretty obvious ones there is little to no evidence to prove that their ineptitude is purposeful.

 

[Excel]

It is funny how there are people who even think this is arguable. As there gets to be more money involved in college football, rankings mean more-and-more financially to a conference. Vandy is not going to a BCS game...they most likely won't even be ranked this season. If things go right, USC could remain in the top 10 for much of the season and maybe be another BCS team for the conference. If they get upset by Vandy it makes the road to the BCS a lot tougher (particularly with LSU on the sched). It is not as good for the conference if a top ten team loses to an unranked team. If the officials can make a difference with a non-call here or there, they will. It happens way to often to deny. I know all of you who survive on a steady diet of rainbows and unicorns can't imagine this type of thing goes on....but there is too much $$$$ in this for it not to happen.

If that's your argument then it would follow that in the SEC highly ranked teams with large and rich fan bases wouldn't lose close games because the officials would help them but instead we see;

Florida

2010 - Ranked 22, lost 7-10 to lower ranked Miss. St.

2008 - Ranked 4, lost 30-31 to lower ranked Ole Miss

2007 - Ranked 9, lost 30-42 to lower ranked UGA

2006 - Ranked 1, lost 17-27 to lower ranked AU

2005 - Ranked 12, lost 22-30 to lower ranked USC

Georgia

2005 - Ranked 4, lost 10-14 to lower ranked UF | ranked 9 lost 30-31 to lower ranked AU.

2006 - Ranked 14, lost 22-24 to lower ranked Vandy

2007 - Ranked 12, lost 12-16 to lower ranked USC

South Carolina

2011 - Ranked 9 lost 13-16 to lower ranked AU

2010 - Ranked 10 lost 28-31 to lower ranked UK

2008 - Ranked 24, lost 17-24 to lower ranked Vandy

2007 - Ranked 8, lost 6-17 to lower ranked Vandy. Ranked 17 lost 24-27 to lower ranked UT.

Tennessee

2005 - Ranked 23, lost 15-16 to lower ranked USC

2006 - Ranked 8, lost 24-28 to lower ranked LSU

Kentucky

2007 - Ranked 8, lost 37-45 to lower ranked UF.

Arkansas

2006 - Ranked 5 lost 26-31 to lower ranked LSU.

2007 - Ranked 16 lost 28-41 to lower ranked Alabama.

Alabama

2010 - Ranked 1, lost 21-35 to lower ranked USC. Ranked 5 lost 21-24 to lower ranked LSU.

2008 - Ranked 1, lost 20-31 to lower ranked UF.

2007 - Ranked 16, lost 23-26 to lower ranked UGA. Ranked 21 lost 12-17 to lower ranked Miss. St.

2005 - Ranked 4, lost 13-16 to lower ranked LSU. Ranked 8 lost 28-18 to lower ranked AU.

Auburn

2008 - Ranked 14, lost 13-14 to lower ranked Vandy. Ranked 23 lost 22-25 to lower ranked Arky.

2009 - Ranked 25, lost 24-31 to lower ranked UGA.

LSU

2010 - Ranked 6, lost 23-31 to lower ranked Arky.

2009 - Ranked 10, lost 23-25 to lower ranked Ole Miss.

2007 - Ranked 1, lost 37-42 to lower ranked UK. Ranked 1, lost 48-50 to lower ranked Arky.

2005 - Ranked 4 lost 27-30 to lower ranked UT.

Ole Miss

2009 - Ranked 4, lost 10-16 to lower ranked USC.

Mississippi State

2011 - Ranked 16, lost 34-41 to Auburn.

So there, that's 35 games in the last seven seasons that disprove your theory. If SEC officials were rigging games we wouldn't see nearly that many. Three are close games where the eventual national champion lost to a lower ranked or unranked team; UF v. Ole Miss, LSU v. UK and LSU v. Arkansas. SEC officials in your view of things definitely would've attempted to prevent that.

There's the unicorn and rainbow side of the argument, where we find all the facts and there's the conspiracy theorist side of it where we find a few sparse pieces of anecdotal "evidence." These missed calls happen in every game of every conference. It just happens that this one fits your theory.

I stand by my original statement. It is inarguable...top ranked teams get their ranking protected when the officials can. And dude, did you really go look all that stuff up just to prove me wrong? Geeeez. I guess you care waaaaaay more about this topic than I do.

If its inarguable then it should be easy to prove. Do it. You should be able to provide tons of irrefutable evidence. Pointing at a blown call and saying "See, I told you so" is horribly underwhelming.

...and yea I did look that up because I hate to hear the argument you're making. I think it's a poor one but I'm open to hearing evidence. Also the ND Navy game was killing me to watch

okay, you win...because I have a life

So to recap;

Makes ludicrous unfounded statement. Can't back it up when refuted. Takes ball and goes home.

 

[dutch91701]

So to recap;

Makes ludicrous unfounded statement. Can't back it up when refuted. Takes ball and goes home.

"Unfounded" is a bit of a stretch. It happens in sports, the NBA most notably. Nobody said it happens in every game, on every play, but it does happen. Hell, part of why Nebraska is in the B1G is because of referees fixing games (it was a last straw, not the main cause, but still a factor).

 

[California Husker]

So to recap;

Makes ludicrous unfounded statement. Can't back it up when refuted. Takes ball and goes home.

Damn dude, what do you want? I said you win. You guys in Wisconsin need to stop eating so much cheese. I think the constipation makes you too grumpy to know when you don't have to argue any longer.

 

[Notre Dame Joe]

And SEC refs share in this money grab how? You think they are paid to throw games? Or penalized by not getting games if they don't? Yeah, it's inarguable, all right.

What happens if you blatantly ignore what your boss tells you to do? Is it that hard to imagine what would happen to officials if they didn't fix games? It's the same thing we saw in the Big XII. To say that it doesn't happen is really just naive. There's so much money involved that it would honestly be stupid not to fix games. It's a shame, but that's what it's about.

If my boss (especially for a part-time gig like this) tells me to do something clearly immoral if not illegal, I would be going to the press and breaking this story wide open, or making money writing a book about it.

It doesn't have to be a smoke filled room where the refs vote on who is going to win the games. The mere knowledge of which side their bread is being buttered is enough to create a bias in their mind. That can be enough to tilt the close calls in one direction.

Still on that one I don't see how they missed it at all, it was not close.