'Why don't you owe me money?:' Breaking down unconventional fix to college football officiating system

Following a missed call in the Auburn–Oklahoma game on Saturday, the SEC officially made a statement admitting it blew the call. Of course, that won’t change things for the Tigers.

And at least one college football analyst is upset that there’s not a reciprocal relationship between officials and programs impacted by their calls. There’s little recourse for a program like Auburn, which was tangibly impacted (in the form of a touchdown allowed) by a blown call.

“College football, billion dollar industry. Nickel and dime officiating enforcement arm,” Josh Pate said on Josh Pate’s College Football Show. “College football sits here and prints money. It’s a billion dollar industry and it’s got a nickel and dime officiating arm. And it’s never made sense. But it only makes sense when you understand no one’s really in charge.”

Which officials call games is a matter of protocol. But how the individual leagues responsible for providing officials respond to different scenarios can vary widely.

“You’ve got conference coordinators of officials. Who are they answering to?” Pate said. “Steve Shaw? What transparency is he giving you? So really as just an observer of college football, maybe even a coach, what kind of transparency are you really getting?”

Pate said he talked to several college officials in the past 24 hours and all were buzzing about the blown call against Auburn. Most admitted it was a fireable offense, a basic call.

“What’s really wild is Hugh Freeze is sitting in this game yesterday and just an egregious call goes against him,” Pate said. “I kid you not I have spoken to officials today that say that’s Day 1 clinic stuff. Like even within their own world it was the talk of yesterday about how egregious a no-call that was and how much everyone should be fired or punished on the spot on that crew for allowing it to happen.

“Here’s what’s wild, though. Call gets blown, just an egregious miss by that crew in the Auburn-Oklahoma game and then the SEC comes out afterwards and says, ‘Yeah, we messed it up.’ And that’s it. You know what’s crazy is if Hugh Freeze goes to the podium afterwards and does nothing more than tell the truth about what a joke the process is right now of officiating and the lack of transparency, he’ll get fined.”

Pate suggested a rather revolutionary alternate approach for the officials, as unlikely to be adopted as it may be. Auburn, though, would feel at least a little better if his idea were adopted.

So what was it? Reciprocity.

“I’m sitting there thinking to myself yesterday, hold up, so Hugh Freeze’s job is on the line pending he win football games,” Pate said. “You can make a call that may cost him a game and all you’ve got to do is say afterwards, ‘Oh, we missed it.’ Hands clean.

“If Hugh Freeze calls you out he owes you tens of thousands of dollars. Here’s my question: If your officials screw a game up and cost me a win, and you come out and admit you cost me or at the very least you screwed up, why don’t you owe me money? Why doesn’t the SEC owe Auburn millions of dollars?”

Certainly food for thought given a rather boneheaded no-call on Saturday. Pate was clearly bothered by the blatant missed call.