OT: ACC Suspends Miami/Duke Officiating Crew

Submitted by Mr. Yost on

Begs the question...why won't the B1G do this? The last two games have been atrocious.

ACC SUSPENDS MIAMI-DUKE OFFICIATING CREW

Of the two-game suspension of the on-field officiating crew as well as the replay official and communicator, the league said in a statement: "The replay official erred in not overturning the ruling on the field that the Miami player had released the ball prior to his knee being down. If called, this would have ended the game." The league cited three other uncalled penalties

DrAwkward

November 1st, 2015 at 1:14 PM ^

Kudos to the ACC. Maybe you can't right the wrong, but pretending it didn't happen doesn't help. 

The replay official has no excuse. The Miami guy was clearly down.

Hit 'em in the wallet and maybe they won't screw the pooch so badly next time.

B-Nut-GoBlue

November 1st, 2015 at 1:15 PM ^

Why? To me it looked like the ball was out of "possession" when the Miami player's knee was touching the ground. It was only twice I saw a replay but that particular call seemed okay to me.

B-Nut-GoBlue

November 1st, 2015 at 2:16 PM ^

Screen shots show a ball on the palm of his hand when his knee is down. It's pretty simultaneous. Would you consider that a fumble in other circumstances? I think I would, and if I think that, then I lean toward that being considered "not down" and hard to overturn. The block in the back toward the end of the run might have been in the back but it was also unnecessary as the guy was going to score anyway at that point.

umgoblue2008

November 1st, 2015 at 2:39 PM ^

The ACC:

"

  • The replay official erred in not overturning the ruling on the field that the Miami player had released the ball prior to his knee being down. If called, this would have ended the game.
  • The on-field officials erred by failing to penalize Miami for an illegal block in the back at the Miami 16-yard line. If called, the ball would have been placed at the Miami 8-yard line and the game would have been extended for an untimed down.
  • A block in the back foul was called at the Duke 26-yard line. After the officials conferred, which is appropriate, they correctly determined that the block was from the side, which resulted in the flag being picked up. The replay official was not involved in the decision to pick up the flag; however, the referee did not effectively manage communication and properly explain why the flag was picked up.
  • In addition, the on-field crew failed to penalize a Miami player for leaving the bench area and entering the field prior to the end of the play. This foul would not have negated the touchdown because it would have been enforced as a dead ball foul."

tjohn7

November 1st, 2015 at 1:23 PM ^

Sounds about right.  Gotta be tough officiating a play like that, but they had a clear out with his knee down.  Sucks to be a Duke fan today.

BomTrady

November 1st, 2015 at 1:27 PM ^

How about each conference retrain each crew to recognize targeting? It's completely arbitrary as is. Ruddock damn near had his head taken off, while cook got a bump on the noggin. No doubt they were scared of dantonio bitching if they didn't eject.



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markusr2007

November 1st, 2015 at 1:36 PM ^

There must be some explanation for it.  I'm thinking alot of veterans have hung up their cleats leaving a bunch of older "new guys" who feel they've mastered the theory but continuously and repeatedly fuck up the 'application and use". Except that idea is shot to hell since the refs in the replay booth are only getting worse.

In particular, I don't recall a year where they have got the targeting penalty wrong more frequently, and not just in Michigan football games.

carolina blue

November 1st, 2015 at 1:50 PM ^

I've been thinking about this targeting business too. But you say they're consistently getting it wrong. What if they're not getting targeting wrong? I'm not saying none of them have been missed/wrong as any given penalty may be mis-applied on any given play. But what if they're generally getting it right? You have to entertain the possibility they are getting it mostly right and that the rule just needs to be changed.



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JamieH

November 1st, 2015 at 6:28 PM ^

is the replay guys.  The officials on the field are no worse than usual.  Officials on the field have always been relatively bad, just due to the fact that calling a football game is really hard.

 

But replay officiating this year has been embarassing.  These guys are watching instast replay and cannot get it right.  It's ridiculous.  Either they are utterly icompetent, they aren't gett the right feeds, their equipment sucks, or some combination of these 3 things, because there is just no reason for them to be able to watch the video as much as they need and still get these calls so blatently wrong.

LSAClassOf2000

November 1st, 2015 at 1:40 PM ^

This is probably a very small consolation prize if you're a Duke fan, because that play has an argument to be the single worst officiated play in a long time, and that's despite the debacles that have been targeting calls / no-calls throughout the season (MSU game included there). Cannot imagine how Duke fans feel right now, but I assume it is pretty damn low.

charblue.

November 1st, 2015 at 1:46 PM ^

on that final play in addition to the player going to a kneel-down before laterraling to a teammate. The review official clearly didn't have the courage to overturn the field no-call and the crew didn't have the courage to flag the multiple penalities on the play.

I'm telling you the mentaiity of any crew on a final play situation like Michigan's game against Nebraska in the Alamo Bowl is to ignore any infraction and let the team's decide things. That is why nothing was called two weeks ago on the final play. Officials don't want to decide games even though there job is to make sure a team doesn't use illegal contact or formations to gain an advantage over another. This crew got what it deserved. Failure to act is not judicious, it's the absence of responsible officiating.

FrankMurphy

November 1st, 2015 at 1:47 PM ^

Can someone explain why overturning the outcome of the game is out of the question? There is now indisputable photographic evidence that on the now-infamous fourth lateral, the player's knee hit the turf before he released the ball. There was no time on the clock when that happened, so the game would definitely have ended if the correct call was made (which was missed by not only the on-field crew, but by the replay booth as well). So why can't they award Duke the 'W' retroactively?

charblue.

November 1st, 2015 at 2:07 PM ^

the result of a game after the fact. I don't know whether that right exists in college football, and that Duke would have that option petitioning the conference for that play to be overturned by conference review.

But the problem is the NCAA instituted play review to avoid this situation. The conference took appropriate action in suspending the crew which it hired and assigned to the contest. Apart from apologizing to Duke, not sure whether the school has the right to protest the result of the game based on the conference's action.

umchicago

November 1st, 2015 at 2:19 PM ^

what are the big issues with last nite?  the potential targeting on jake?  i thought they did a pretty good job.  they discussed the punt returner interference and then threw a flag on us - correct call.

they threw a flag on us for late hit on their QB then discussed and picked it up - correct call.

they are always going to miss random holding calls, but i don't recall many obvious missed calls.

JTGoBlue

November 1st, 2015 at 2:24 PM ^

You missed the 2 plays where targeting should have been called because the Minnesota player hit our quarterback at the helmet with his helmet. One of which caused the helmet of our QB come off. Both plays should have been called for targeting.



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SaigonBlue

November 1st, 2015 at 4:17 PM ^

The way we saw it, Dymonte was looking at the FIRST Minn player signaling fair catch when, at the last moment, a second Minn player signaled fair catch as he ran towards Dymonte.

What is the rule on this? Can two players signal for a fair catch? I am thinking "no", but cannot find a clarification on this rule.

reshp1

November 1st, 2015 at 2:05 PM ^

I usually give refs a pass. It's an impossibly tough job and most close ones you're pissing off people either way. That said, I'm absolutely flabbergasted by video review officials. How do you get *so* many obvious calls wrong? There's no excuse with the camera angles and technology they have at their disposal.

charblue.

November 1st, 2015 at 2:14 PM ^

what the sport, is that they are reluctant and sometimes denied authority to overturn calls that are not made by the officials whose work they are reviewing. In some cases, they can't review non-calls or act on calls that aren't subject to a specific challenge.

They have no defense when they blow calls that video evidence clearly demonstrates they failed to get right.

umchicago

November 1st, 2015 at 2:08 PM ^

imo, the second best ref of each crew should be in the booth reviewing replays.  the best guy should be the "R"ef who is controlling the game on the field.

too often it seems, we have old retired dudes in the booth, where 10 year old video game playing kids would be better.

JamieH

November 1st, 2015 at 6:31 PM ^

In fact, I would argue that it should be your BEST guy in the replay booth, and perhaps someone trained SPECIFICALLY to be a replay official.  Instead, like you said, they are jamming either old retired washed-up guys who clearly can't hack it up there, or as is the case of the MSU-Michigan game, a guy who it sounded like had never even been a college football official.  From his bio, it sounded like he was primarily a high-school basketball ref that they just threw in the replay booth for some unknown reason.

They aren't taking staffing of the replay booth seriously, and the results make that obvious.

justingoblue

November 1st, 2015 at 7:37 PM ^

Part of the problem is too few football games. I don't know how it works in other Big Ten sports, but as far as hockey guys those guys are full time referees and linesman. They're splitting time between leagues and might have another gig as needed, but they're getting most of their income and spending most of their time officiating hockey games (and related activities, teaching USA Hockey seminars, some coach power skaitng, whatever).

If they have one guy in the booth the Big Ten needs a minimum of 63 officials. There's no way 63 guys can get the practice they actually need at a high enough level with the small amount of games being played.

Yeoman

November 2nd, 2015 at 9:01 AM ^

That's not just a problem for booth officials, and it's a problem at all levels. More players per squad in football means fewer teams than other sports; longer recovery time between games means fewer games per team.

My high school was pretty small but we still fielded ten basketball teams: 7th, 8th, 9th, JV, varsity for both genders. And each of those teams played twice per week--that's 20 games/week during the season, with games every night of the week except Monday. There's plenty of opportunity for officials to work their way up and every official is getting at least two or three games every week.

Football was just three games per week: 7/8, JV and varsity. Nobody's working more than one game/week, and the pool of lower-level active officials is (relatively) smaller.

I'm guessing there are fewer off-season opportunities available in football, too. AAU, summer leagues: basketball's a year-round sport nowadays in a way that football can't ever be.

justingoblue

November 2nd, 2015 at 2:55 PM ^

I was commenting more generally on your comments about the state of Big Ten officiating than whether specifically the replay guys had enough experience relative to the guys on the field. Specifically when you were saying one might be mostly a basketball referee.

My take (and this includes NFL) is that none of the football officials are getting the practice they need, and it's because so few football games get played. The NFL might be better served hiring full time guys and eating the cost of them working with youth players for five months out of the year. That's almost definitely not an option for the Big Ten, though.

BlueMk1690

November 1st, 2015 at 2:22 PM ^

though to be honest, they probably should just be let go period.

The officiating malpractice in the Duke/Miami game far exceeded anything we have seen in the Big Ten this season. I mean let's face it, if we had been on the other side of the stuff in the UM/MSU game we wouldn't even talk about the refs.

GoBlueNorthside

November 1st, 2015 at 3:41 PM ^

Clearly more ACC favoritism for Duke. The refs made a dozen erroneous calls against Miami, none of which has been mentioned by the ACC. They had a historic 27 penalties against Miami. The ACC has been a Duke/UNC conference for a while now - now they want it to be that way in football as well as basketball

Nitro

November 1st, 2015 at 7:41 PM ^

Bad calls go against any other team, and the most we've ever seen is an apology.  But one bad call goes against Duke, and suddenly officials are getting suspended and reversing the outcome of a game after the fact is being discussed like a legitimate possibility.

Whatever. Fuck Duke.