Plug, plug, plug . . .

[Tim C]

Over on the baseball side of this website we speak to the fact that, like everything else, there are two type of officials:

Black Letter Rule Officials - people that believe, in their heart, that the rules are written to be called and there is no grey. They question why anyone would go to the trouble of writing specific rules if they did not want them called.

Common Sense and Fair Play Officials -- these are the officals that believe in things like the "Tower Principle" and letting the players decides who wins. They look at a rule book as "guidelines" rather than black letter law.

Now I think both sides are needed in officiating and both sides get bit by their specific philosophy.

As noted there may not be a perfect blend but a blend is needed . . . more than that, as you noted so well, the level of game participants means that "one size" does not fit all.

There is room for both types of officials in all sports.

"One Rule -- One Interpretation -- One Mechanic"

[BktBallRef]

I too am glad there was no flag. But I maintain if the wing man is going to flag OU for an illegal shift and then there's an illegal motion on BSU, then he has to flag it as well. I'm left to believe that he did not feel there was a foul on the BSU play.

[JasonTX]

Originally Posted by BktBallRef

I'm left to believe that he did not feel there was a foul on the BSU play.

In my opinion as I stated previously I think that illegal motion must be obvious. I want that motion to be illegal without any doubt about it. If I have to take that video and look at it frame by frame and in slow motion to see if it's legal or illegal then I believe it's best not to call it. I would expect that most all levels of play the officials are instructed to not call a foul if it fits into the category of a call that could go either way. If this player would have taken a much more obvious motion forward I believe a flag would have been thrown. The illegal shift was obvious without any doubt and it was flagged.

[sj]

I forget. What happened on the illegal shift by OU?

[Warrenkicker]

That penalty nulified a successful two-point conversion which tied the game with 1:28 left. However Oklahoma then converted the try following the penalty.

The issue on that play was that first an Oklahoma back shifted to a new position and prior to him getting set again the motion man started his movement. The player who was then in motion at the snap also appeared to be the end receiver on the line-of-scrimmage and was in motion on the LOS and not a back in legal motion.

In other words, there were some real problems for Oklahoma on this play.