I understand that Bob Stoops wants to vent, and he should be entitled to do that. And he has vented, and he’s continued to do so, and I hope someone shows him the Wrap-It-Up box soon. Regardless of what happened, if you’re the best team in the Big 12, then you’ll win the Big 12 and still go to a major bowl game. You’ve still got a chance to do that. That offer remains on the table.
I do wish, though, that the rest of Oklahoma would just shut the fuck up about it. They’re now talking about pulling out of their 2008 game against Washington if the Pac-10 doesn’t change their policy that requires that Pac 10 officials be used at home games for non-conference teams.
Absurd. Oklahoma knew the policy when they entered into the contract, and they didn’t say a word about it then. If they felt the policy was unfair, they should’ve never signed the deal. Now, they get a bad call, and all the sudden, they can’t be consorting with the lowlives in the Pac 10.
It was a bad call. Nothing more, nothing less. There was not some vast conspiracy against Oklahoma in that game, it was simply a very very poor replay process, a rushed, poor judgment by a replay official, and a couple of on-field officials that missed some things they should have seen, too. It’s unfortunate, but it happened. You’ve complained for a couple of days, and that’s fine, but now it’s time to suck it up and move on.
I’m think Washington should step up and cancel the series first. The Washington AD should call a press conference tomorrow and say something like, “We’re really not comfortable playing a game against a group of twelve-year-old girls. We understand that the Oklahoma people are afraid that the referees will be mean to them again, and we don’t want anyone’s feelings to get hurt. We’re not playing them, but we do wish them the best of luck in the future, and in securing a berth in the Tampax Gentle Glide Bowl.”
Mark
Well, the whole damn post was good, but when you said, “Oklahoma knew the policy when they entered into the contract, and they didn’t say a word about it then,” you started speaking my language.
Yeah, go ahead OU, pull out of the contract and then watch as your ass gets sued for millions of dollars in damages. God damn, they do inbreed them down in Norman, don’t they?
September 21, 2006 at 9:11 am
HuangKong
a zen post. brilliant.
September 21, 2006 at 9:49 am
unc_samurai
Are we supposed to believe that Big 12 officials are going to be any better? How about making them use Sun Belt conference officials? Maybe Ohio Valley?
How about this? Why don’t we take the responsibility of officiating away from the conferences and have a national referee corporation whose sole job is to train and provide refs for college and pro games. A unified body training and working with the NCAA and NFL to make refs a full-time job. This way, there’s no hint of homer problems.
September 21, 2006 at 9:51 am
Matt Moore
Am I wrong thinking that the replay procedure is the same not matter what conference the officials are from? Because, from what I’ve read, the replay official blew the onsides kick call because he only had access to one angle (and it wasn’t the one that made the call obvious) and couldn’t freeze frame or slow down the video. Changing the officials wouldn’t make any difference if that’s the way they all do it.
September 21, 2006 at 10:11 am
drrew
Bob Knight has the best take on the entire situation. (http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/news/story?id=2597046)
Sometimes when you’re on the road you get fucked. Oklahoma did it fairly blatantly to Texas Tech in basketball. Oregon did it to Oklahoma in football. That’s part of what homefield advantage is.
September 21, 2006 at 12:17 pm
WBRS Sports Blog
The situation really sucks for Stoops and his team. With Adr Pete I bet they thought a trip to the Championship game was possible, with Texas looking beatable.
September 21, 2006 at 12:55 pm
Bouj
I think you’re giving OU WAY too much credit. There was no way they were going to be able to get past Ohio State/Auburn/USC/West Virginia/Louisville to get into the BCS title game.
September 21, 2006 at 3:55 pm
Cheese
Have you seen OU’s conference schedule? If they hadn’t gotten screwed in Oregon, all they had to do was get lucky against Texas. Then its smooth sailing through the Big XII and the Big XII championship. Its still possible, but they’ll have to get lucky.
September 21, 2006 at 5:14 pm
syzygy
The on field officials are the ones who completely fucked up the call. It’s not clear to me that the replay guy did anything wrong. The refs blew the whistle way too early, before the OU player recovered the ball.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=o82YHoHhgyI
You can clearly hear the whistle blow before #23 recovers the ball. It isn’t even close. Once the whistle blows, the play is dead, so it doesn’t matter where the ball ends up after that. I don’t know what the ruling would have been on that, though. Maybe a do-over like that weird play in the Colts-Steelers playoff game last year?
September 22, 2006 at 10:18 am
James
Are you completely insane?
The replay official is the only one who did anythign wrong here. You gotta give the onfield guys the benefit of the doubt. The game moves fast and its a hard job I give them that. The replay guy had the chance to make it right and didnt. Not couldnt, didnt.
It is now clear he has lied about not having the replay angles. His own conference ahs said he lied he had every angle TV did plus a TV to stop rewind freeze frame. Knowing that how can he defend the clal he made in any way.
This isnt about a bad call. That happens, its part of football. Its that this call could easily have been corrected and should have but he chose not to.
BTW
This has nothing to do with who recovered the ball, though OU did. You cannot touch the ball or an opposing player within ten yards of the kickoff. The Oregeon player did both.
Everyones team gets bad calls, weve all felt that sting. Then we sit and say man we couldve won if not for that. However in this case if the right call is made the game is over, period, no debate. It actually took away a victory.
I hope nobody will play a PAC 10 team until they change the policy. It just gives the appearance of inpropriety on face value. Then you ix in a blatant screwing like this and its worse. its not good for football period to have shit like this going on. I would be pissed no matter who was on the wrong end of this.
The bottom line is college football is big business and this one call could cost the Universoity millions of dollars in which bowl game they go to.
Every conference ahndles replay differently as they do their officials. PAC 10 only allows their own for home interconference home games. they are also the only conference to do so. My question is why do we have conference officials at all. Why not have the NCAA have the officials and assign them to games? Wouldnt that seem to be a much better system. Then they could all be trained the same and have acces to the same materials and tools?
September 22, 2006 at 11:05 pm