[RonRef]

Originally Posted by Andy

I'm not a football official, but I am definitely sympathetic to officials in all sports. As long as games are officiated by humans, mistakes will be made. As officials, we should strive to do two things:

a) Minimize the mistakes we make by studying the rules and mechanics of the games we officiate and try to get in the best possible position during the contest to see and rule on the playing action.

b) Hope that the mistakes or errors we make are not magnified by the game situation.

The officials in the Oklahoma-Oregon game most likely accomplished part A, or they wouldn't be there in the first place. Obviously, they failed part B.

Does anyone believe that there would have been the same repercussions had this same play happened on a kickoff in the middle of the second quarter as opposed to with less than a minute to play? I'm sure the officials would have been chastised in their film review session, but it would have been behind closed doors and the only people involved would be the officiating crew and their supervisor(s).

Because of the game situation, I'm sure the PAC-10 felt the need to make some type of public statement and reprimand to preserve the credibility of its officiating crews. Coaches and fans often complain that officials are not accountable for their actions or mistakes on the field or court. We, of course, know different, but in this high profile situation, the conference felt the need to go public and I can see their reasoning.

This is all about money, 16-20 million dollars per team is on the line if you make it to one of the 5 BCS bowl games. Mistakes by officials are magnified by about 20 million times!