ESPN Takes Washington Huskies vs. BYU Call and Loss Awfully Hard

Leading Saturday's College Football Live telecast tonight was the story about the officiating at the end of the BYU-Washington football game. ESPN was falling all over themselves to call out what they saw as a violation of a basic human right—celebrating in the end zone after a touchdown.

After leading a heroic drive, Jake Locker brought his team within one point, pending a PAT attempt. Unfortunately for Locker, after scoring the touchdown that could have tied the game, he threw the ball in the air—high into the air. Youtube highlights show the ball landing on his own head about 2.5 seconds after he let if fly.

To hear ESPN tell it, this penalty was totally unjustified. For the first two hours of the coverage Mark May insisted that Locker hadn't thrown the ball, that he had merely "tossed the ball over his shoulder."

My guess is that May stopped arguing this point when he finally sat down and watched the play. Lou Holtz took over after that, arguing that Locker had only "raised his hands in celebration and the ball slipped out." Kirk Herbstriet argued the ball "came out of his hand as he stood up."

Most of the ESPN commentators also talked in terms of the call "costing UW the game" and how much they hated the rule. It was interesting to see the news anchors read the rule verbatim from the rule book that you can't throw the ball in the air after a play, then toss the coverage to the editorial staff, only to have them jump out of their skin over the refs calling the penalty for throwing ball in the air.

If you think the rule is bad, fine, but if you watch the replay, you'll be hard pressed to argue the ball wasn't thrown high in the air.

Furthermore, very few mentioned that the unsportsmanlike penalty didn't end the game. It didn't hand the Cougars the victory. It backed up a PAT 15 yards. All UW had to do to send the game to overtime was kick a 35-yard PAT from the dead center of the field. They couldn't do it.

The Seattle Times quotes both players and coaches who say that rule was correctly interpreted and enforced. They aren't happy about the rule, but they certainly weren't making the excuses ESPN was all night.

Why is ESPN making such a big deal of this? It could be be due to the media empire ESPN has built on flashy highlights that can be packaged into neat :30 packages and re-aired on each of their 6 channels on a loop.

ESPN could be taking the position that NCAA rules forbidding such dancing should be ridiculed on air constantly until they are dropped; this will lead to more glitzy highlights. They could have an interest in promoting more showboating and less sportsmanship.

Or perhaps it's because ESPN has a product to promote, and unfortunately for BYU, they aren't part of that product. Their games air on Verses (owned by Comcast) and CBS' new college sports channel.

Some talking heads have been asking if BYU should fall in the polls from their 15th spot due to only beating UW by one point. I don't have the footage to check, but I doubt that ESPN was calling for voters to drop No. 1, USC, after beating UW on the road last year by three points, nor did ESPN feel the need to tell voters to be sure to drop Ohio State after a less-than-stellar home win over a MAC team.

Perhaps they have an interest in promoting the teams that play their games on their channels.

In most sports, ESPN's Power Polls matter very little. The NBA analysts can gripe all they want about who is up and who is down. It won't effect the championship. College football is unique in that it's public perception actually effects who gets to play.

ESPN's sad abuse of their own power is getting tired.