Excessive celebration-Pinstripe Bowl

[rulesmaven]

Originally Posted by BktBallRef

Whether my expectations are realistic or not, there's no way you can justify a salute being flagged as USC in one game and in the very next game, on the same network, a crew from the same conference ignores the exact same act three times.

This.

Plus, I'd add that rules and their enforcement need to give players reasonable notice of what they can and can't do. Players watch sportscenter. They see what their opponent does. How can you have a situation where nobody knows what is legal and what is not?

The answer that one can just hand the ball to an official and run to the sideline and have nothing to worry about is not satisfying to me. If you want that to be the rule, fine. Make it the rule. It sure would help officials. But that's not the rule. So long as the rules allow for some spontaneous celebration, it's very hard to see how one can justify last night's call. If a rule is so ambiguous that even the same crew doesn't call it the same way every time, then you simply have to err on the side of not calling it unless it's something you feel confident most objective people would say, "ah, yes, that's what we want to stop."

[JasonTX]

Originally Posted by rulesmaven

This.

Plus, I'd add that rules and their enforcement need to give players reasonable notice of what they can and can't do. Players watch sportscenter. They see what their opponent does. How can you have a situation where nobody knows what is legal and what is not?

The answer that one can just hand the ball to an official and run to the sideline and have nothing to worry about is not satisfying to me. If you want that to be the rule, fine. Make it the rule. It sure would help officials. But that's not the rule. So long as the rules allow for some spontaneous celebration, it's very hard to see how one can justify last night's call. If a rule is so ambiguous that even the same crew doesn't call it the same way every time, then you simply have to err on the side of not calling it unless it's something you feel confident most objective people would say, "ah, yes, that's what we want to stop."

If you were a player and you've seen all the inconsistencies on all the sports replays and you weren't sure if you'd get flagged or not, why would you risk doing something that may or may not be flagged. When playing with fire, sometimes you get burned and sometimes you don't. My advice is to NEVER play with fire because you never know when it's your turn to get burned. Two officials judged the action to be a foul. Other officials may not agree it was a foul. 50/50 is just not an area, if I were a player, that I'd risk doing something to draw a flag. They can never give enough rule changes that could say that this act will be a foul 100% of the time and this act will never be a foul. It just don't work that way. It just another judgement call. Don't do something to force that official to use judgement. That should be enough of a deterant that all players will not risk doing anything. There is a very good chance we don't see any type of action following a score the rest of this year. If that turns out to be true, then mission accomplished with removing celebrations from the game, which is the mission of the rules committee.

[rulesmaven]

Originally Posted by JasonTX

There is a very good chance we don't see any type of action following a score the rest of this year.

Then all you've done is created a de facto rule that doesn't actually exist.

If that's the rule the rules committee wants, they should have the courage to enact it and accept the wrath of fans and boosters who want some spontaneous celebration in the game. Alternatively, aim for something more objective like the NFL has done. Either way, take the officials out of the cross-hairs. It seems pretty clear that trying to walk some ever-moving line just means everyone gets caught in the switches.

[JasonTX]

Originally Posted by rulesmaven

Then all you've done is created a de facto rule that doesn't actually exist.

If that's the rule the rules committee wants, they should have the courage to enact it and accept the wrath of fans and boosters who want some spontaneous celebration in the game. Alternatively, aim for something more objective like the NFL has done. Either way, take the officials out of the cross-hairs. It seems pretty clear that trying to walk some ever-moving line just means everyone gets caught in the switches.

I don't like it personally myself, but I don't blame the officials either. Players need to remember all the inconsistencies with how these are officiated and just don't do anything that may or may not draw a flag. Hand the ball to the official and go to the huddle or team area is the best thing a player can do as we have seen in past few years. Every year there is always one game that draws some attention to one of these types of calls. Players should know by now that it could happen to them.