Here is an article released today where the SunBelt Conference has responded to the criticism of the officiating in the Alamo Bowl. It's pretty long but good reading and very detailed.

http://www.refstripes.com/forum/inde...sg2445#msg2445

Excellent stuff!

Good job SunBelt!

One question. Did the officials rule that USC in their heads or what? Where I come from a foul is signaled by dropping of a small yellow object developed by Dwight "Dike" Beede of Youngstown State University. This yellow "flag" lets everyone know that a foul has been called. I did not see a flag on the last play of the game. Did anyone else? Looks like CYA to me.

Have you ever seen a false start so obvious that all you had was a whistle and for some reason nobody tossed the flag? It's good to have a flag, but the abscence of a flag doesn't mean there are no fouls. The same applies to whistles. The abscence of the sound of the whistle does not always mean the play is still live. With all the people on the field how do we know a flag wasn't dropped. It would have never been seen or recovered anyways. Apparently the officials, for security purposes got off the field. If it were me I would have made the announcement from the locker room that there were 2 fouls...etc.. offsetting, game is over.

My only question is (I don't know NCAA rules) wouldn't you have to replay the down with off-setting fouls?

This debate has raged. It depends on what the foul was called as. There is one way it could have been called and would have been live ball penalized as deads ball fouls on each team. In that case, no replay of down. Game over. In another way the fould could have been called they would have been live ball offsetting and down would have been replyed with period extended for an untimed down.