ESPN Can Help Quell Officiating Blunders

Faced with a plethora of officiating blunders and coach's criticisms that have drawn national attention, SEC Commissioner Mike Slive warned conference coaches that they should keep their mouths shut. He then added a punctuation mark to his warning by fining Urban Meyer $30,000 for pointing out an obvious, uncalled late hit on Tim Tebow in the Florida/Georgia game.

There really aren’t many secrets in the officiating area. Replay shows it all, and yet obvious officiating errors continue to impact the outcomes of games all across the country.  But the SEC seems to lead the poor-officiating field where Florida, LSU, and Alabama have been primary beneficiaries of officiating decisions that were so bad that opposing coaches have felt a need to speak out to support their teams and defend their programs. 

Obviously SEC coaches have been correct in their assessments, as the SEC issued an apology to Georgia (Georgia/LSU celebration call) and suspended one officiating crew for its especially exemplary bungling in the Florida/Mississippi State game (the Georgia/LSU crew, again).

There have been other games with remarkably poor officiating. Two that come to mind are the Ohio State/Illinois game in 2007 and the Pittsburgh/West Virginia game in 2008.  Ohio State lost and an official was fired (he allegedly had gambling connections).  Pittsburgh was able to overcome the officiating in their game, which conspiracy theorists felt was managed to try to insure West Virginia made it to the BCS championship game (they did not).

The solution is to expose this ongoing ineptness. The logical candidate to do this is ESPN.  Here’s how.

ESPN presents several college football shows that highlight both good and bad play on the field conducted by 18-20 year old young men.  They also show the good and the bad related to coaching errors and emotions.  They almost always gloss over obvious, game-impacting miscues by officials.

It’s time for ESPN to devote a weekly show to officiating errors. This show would have status similar to College Game Day.  If conferences have the power to hide from officiating blunders, then someone with offsetting power ought to step up and fill the void by exposing them.

The Pareto Principle holds sway here.  This principle (known as the 80-20 rule) suggests that 20 percent of officials make 80 percent of poor calls.  The twenty percent need to be rooted out and replaced.

Highlighting an egregious call, as well as the official who made it, will benefit college football in a couple of ways.  First, public embarrassment might make officials more attentive and careful.  Second, increased attention will cause bad officials to quit or be fired.  Doing so will result in stronger crews and fewer errors.  College football will be better off as a result.

As for Mr. Slive, he is fining, and threatening to suspend, coaches of teams that have been harmed by obvious officiating errors, and are brave enough to speak up in defense of their teams. My. My. My.

History is rife with autocrats who shroud their programs in secrecy and punish those who object to their “true genius.”

Suppression cloaks transparency and allows mischief to prevail.  Mr. Slives’ suppression of transparency in the SEC officiating area is likely to exacerbate, not solve, the SEC’s officiating woes.