I Can Hold My Tongue No Longer. The Officiating in the SEC SUCKS!

All right, Mr. Slive. When are you going to say enough is enough already? Are Mississippi State fans going to have to throw full water bottles from the second level instead of empty ones?

Is a coach going to have to go out onto the court and cold-cock a referee? What will it take for you to do something about the awful officiating that is quickly turning the SEC into a joke?

So, do you send these guys to any classes? Do you test them on their knowledge of the rules?

I know baseball sends its umpires to the Harry Wendlestedt School for a month of 40 hour a week courses before they can even ump in A ball. What do SEC refs do? Go online and fill out an application?

They got several football coaches in hot water this year, from Lane Kiffin to Bobby Petrino to Les Miles and even Urban Meyer. Meyer got fined even though the edict came from you prior to the week that there would be no more tolerance for coaches criticising officials.

Does it not occur to you that the fact that you have to make such a proclamation is an indication that there is something wrong here? Basketball season has done nothing  but confirm this.

The officiating in this league is horrendous. Refs go from "letting them play" to "whistle happy" not from game to game, but from minute to minute. At the start of today's Florida-Georgia game a player couldn't go to the hoop and get a foul called if he got his head taken off. By late in the first half, you couldn't breathe on a guy without a whistle.

There is no consistency. Except that they are consistently awful. Every idiot knows that a player looking back for a pass has to be given the opportunity to turn around and avoid a defender to get a charge call. Every idiot except the ones getting paid to make the call that is.

Erving Walker today was looking back for an inbound pass and had no idea there was a defender right there. He no sooner turned his head and there was a collision. Offensive foul. WHAT?? That play is NEVER called an offensive foul. Well, outside the SEC anyway.

How can a player go up, miss a dunk, hang on the rim. the ball bounces straight up and comes back down and goes in the basket, and the refs count the basket AND give the guy a free throw for some ticky-tack foul?

Again, EVERY idiot knows you can't interfere with the rim or the ball when the ball is in the cylinder. Well, almost every idiot.

A Georgia player, McPhee, got teed up after he nearly got his head taken off on a three-point attempt. No foul called. Vernon Macklin is called for a block on a play where he could not have been more stationary if he was made out of cement.

Even Billy Donovan got teed up. I can probably count on one hand how many times that's happened in his 14 years as Gator head coach. The TV cameras caught Georgia coach Mark Fox turn his back away from the officials and look to the heavens screaming "OH MY GOD" after one egregious call against UGA.

It's getting ridiculous, Mike. There's too much at stake here.

LSU picks off a pass against Alabama that could have turned that game around. The refs on the field screw the pooch. Then the refs in the booth do the same. That could have sent a different team to the SEC Championship Game.

Speaking of that. Who knows if UF beats Arkansas without two blown calls that may have resulted in the game-tying touchdown? Both of those games might have turned out exactly the same way, but we'll never know that, will we?

Then there was the LSU-Georgia game debacle that sent Richt's team spiraling downward.

They call a celebration penalty on a guy who just scored the should-have-been game winning touchdown, but then a few weeks later let Terrance Cody take off his helmet before the play ends on his blocked kick against UT. No flag. No consistency.

In the Mississippi State-Florida game the was Dustin Doe hot dogging and getting the ball knocked out of his hand clearly before crossing the goal line. Touchdown. Go to the booth. Call stands. WHAT?

In the MSU-UF basketball game there were several calls that had the fans screaming and the announcers scratching their heads. A MSU player gets fouled on a rebound and never puts up a shot, yet gets two free throws. No, they were not in the double bonus.

Chandler Parsons goes out of his way NOT to touch a guy driving to the hoop late in the game. Refs call a foul. Three-point play.

Then there was the MSU-UK game. An obvious pinning of a ball that has already hit the backboard is let go. By rule that is automatically a goal tending call. A goal tending call ties the game. No call.

Instead, it leads to a fast break the other way that UK converts to go up four. They never were tied again. Angry fans throw empty water bottles on the floor.

This kind of thing is happening way too often. When the SEC is suspending refs as they did following LSU-UGA football game, and fining coaches, then obviously something is wrong here.

What do you tell MSU players and coaches if they get left out of the Big Dance and Joe Lunardi has them as one of his "first four out" teams? What do you say to them when they think back to the UK game?

Yes, I know what you will say. Some of the calls have gone for teams and some have gone against the same teams. They all even out in the end, right? How about let's get the calls right in the first place? Then we won't have to keep track.