Dangerous Logic

They Made Us Use Them!

Apparently the Alamo Bowl folks have been getting an earful about the officiating - so much so that they felt compelled to issue a statement. Long story short - 'it ain't our fault!'

On behalf of the MasterCard Alamo Bowl, we appreciate your watching the game and emailing us with your concerns over the officiating crew.

Let me begin by saying that neither the MasterCard Alamo Bowl nor any of other post-season bowl games has jurisdiction over the officiating crews or the assignment thereof. The NCAA assigns the officiating crews for every bowl game on a formula basis. All eleven conferences have crews assigned to bowl games. The NCAA assigns the officials in an endeavor to get neutral crews and the best crews from each conference. This year, the NCAA assigned a Sun Belt crew for our game.

First on the agenda for the next 2006 Alamo Bowl committee meeting - find out who you have to fellate in Indianapolis so you're not stuck with bottom-of-the-barrel refs again. BTW, if that was the best crew the SBC had to offer, they're even more fucked up than I thought.

Per the recommendation of the various conferences, this season the NCAA adopted the use of Instant Replay for bowl games. The conferences agreed that the Instant Replay crews for the games should come from the same conferences as the Game Officials assigned to the game (in our case, the Sun Belt Conference). Additionally, since there are several variations/models of Instant Replay, the Conferences also agreed that all game/instant replay officials working bowl games would utilize the Big Ten protocol/model.

Left unsaid here is that the Sun Belt was one of two conferences not to use IR last season, and that undoubtedly contributed to their incompetence (I first mentioned this on Brian's blog).

The NCAA, the Sun Belt Conference and the two participating teams in our game will be reviewing and critiquing the performance of the game and Instant Replay officials as they do following every game. Since the game officials are not within our jurisdiction, I am by way of this notice letting the NCAA and the Sun Belt know of your concerns about the officiating crew’s performance. As part of our annual review process with the NCAA, we will also be providing them suggestions for consideration.

Are they taking suggestions from the viewers? 'Cause I could come up with a couple. [H/T Big House Football]

Posted by Chris at December 30, 2005 05:21 PM

Category: Michigan Football