Officiating expert corrects Mississippi State AD after SEC admits error

Saturday’s game between Mississippi State and Memphis featured some controversy.

Late in the game, Mississippi State punted the ball away. The Bulldogs appeared to down the ball, and the back official ran in and waved his hands as if the play was dead, prompting a lot of confusion and leading to an eventual SEC statement. But rather than acknowledging the back official, Memphis’ Calvin Austin scooped up the ball and took it to the house for a late touchdown, giving Memphis a 28-17 lead.

NCAA rules state that if the ball doesn’t fully settle, it is still live. So, technically, the call of a live ball is correct. But that is not the only reason that Mississippi State thought that the play should have been dead.

The SEC released a statement saying that the play should have been ruled dead, but not due to the ball being downed. Instead, the SEC said that the signal from the referee should have immediately ended the play. Two Memphis players were also wearing a No. 4 jersey, which also should have been a penalty. Memphis ultimately won the game 31-29.

Mississippi State AD John Cohen’s statement

A statement was released on Monday by Mississippi State athletic director John Cohen. Cohen said that he appreciates the SEC’s admittance of an error, but that Mississippi State and the rest of the conference expects the process to work the way it is supposed to.

“I appreciate the transparency of the SEC and the admission of officiating errors yesterday,” the statement said. “It is extremely disappointing when student-athletes are not fully in control of a game’s outcome, especially when taking into consideration the time, effort and resources put into an officiating system created to eliminate human error on the field whenever possible. The entire SEC has an expectation that the process will work as intended. Our football program’s focus is now on LSU.”

Veteran NFL referee responds

Former NFL referee Terry McAulay chimed in on Monday, tweeting a message with a screenshot of the Mississippi State AD’s statement attached after the SEC’s admittance of an error. McAulay said that Cohen was referring to the replay system, and that people should be careful with wishing for more replay.

“What he’s talking about here is ‘Replay.’ And it shows the fundamental fallacy so many leaders, and others, in sports have,” McAulay tweeted. “Yes, replay can fix obvious errors. But to think it ‘can eliminate human error…’ ignores the fact that humans make replay decisions…”

McAulay went on to say that replay can actually introduce even more human error.

“In fact, too often, replay actually introduces new or additional human error,” McAulay tweeted. “I noted a few of those just this past weekend. So when people demand more replay, be careful what you wish for. One more fact people don’t understand, replay is really hard.”

While replay seems like a good idea to fix college football, McAulay points out that it can cause more harm than good at times. In the end, human beings are responsible for making the calls and determinations on the field, whether it is through a replay system or not.

The loss was Mississippi State’s first of the season, while Memphis is now 3-0. Mississippi State plays a gauntlet of SEC opponents in the near future with LSU on Saturday before facing Texas A&M and Alabama over the following three weeks.