What can be done to fix the favorable / inadequate officiating in the SEC?
It’s a conversation that fans of EVERY sec team are having (teams not named Bama or Georgia)
There is simply too much money involved to Mickey Mouse the officiating with a bunch of Birmingham insurance reps that want to make an extra $500 a week. The league can do so much better.
To be honest, I think there are two issues…..both stem from inadequate training.
First issue (and I think the bigger issue) is favoritism. Upper tier teams always get the benefit of the doubt. Not talking a play here or there…..talking about Bama not getting holding calls for a month at a time. I don’t think there is necessarily a conspiracy here. I don’t think these guys are smart enough to pull something like that off. I think it’s just weak minded officials that don’t want to get yelled at by Nick Saban on national tv. This is why I wish that Lane was much more assertive on terrible calls. I think if you set the tone early in games that you’re not going to put up with garbage officiating that you will get calls here and there. I think it’s only human.
The second issue is just inadequate officials. We saw this at the A&M game. There’s no reason for the office to protect Jimbo. I think what we were dealing with yesterday is just really poor officials. You have those guys and then you have the crews that feel the need to insert themselves in games.
I don’t know if the answer is to hire NFL guys to work on Saturdays or to have non-local crews call games (nationalize crews rather than having sec officials, acc officials, etc). I don’t have the answers. I do know that continuing to have the same conversations over and over week after week is insane. We are paying these guys hundreds of dollars to keep a hundred million dollar system in check. The math doesn’t work.
It’s a conversation that fans of EVERY sec team are having (teams not named Bama or Georgia)
There is simply too much money involved to Mickey Mouse the officiating with a bunch of Birmingham insurance reps that want to make an extra $500 a week. The league can do so much better.
To be honest, I think there are two issues…..both stem from inadequate training.
First issue (and I think the bigger issue) is favoritism. Upper tier teams always get the benefit of the doubt. Not talking a play here or there…..talking about Bama not getting holding calls for a month at a time. I don’t think there is necessarily a conspiracy here. I don’t think these guys are smart enough to pull something like that off. I think it’s just weak minded officials that don’t want to get yelled at by Nick Saban on national tv. This is why I wish that Lane was much more assertive on terrible calls. I think if you set the tone early in games that you’re not going to put up with garbage officiating that you will get calls here and there. I think it’s only human.
The second issue is just inadequate officials. We saw this at the A&M game. There’s no reason for the office to protect Jimbo. I think what we were dealing with yesterday is just really poor officials. You have those guys and then you have the crews that feel the need to insert themselves in games.
I don’t know if the answer is to hire NFL guys to work on Saturdays or to have non-local crews call games (nationalize crews rather than having sec officials, acc officials, etc). I don’t have the answers. I do know that continuing to have the same conversations over and over week after week is insane. We are paying these guys hundreds of dollars to keep a hundred million dollar system in check. The math doesn’t work.
