SEC Suspends Officiating Crew
October 21st, 2009 ║ Posted By: John Pennington ║ Permalink ║ Tags: Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, LSU, Mississippi State, Ole Miss, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vanderbilt
It’s a day late and a dollar short for Georgia and Arkansas, but the officiating crew responsible for two highly-publicized incorrect calls in recent weeks has been suspended by the SEC.
The crew will not work on October 31st as was originally planned. In fact, the crew will not be assigned to work another game until November 14th.
“A series of calls that have occurred during the last several weeks have not been to the standard that we expect from our officiating crews,” Mike Slive said. “I believe our officiating program is the best in the country, however, there are times when these actions must be taken.
“While only a few calls have been identified, the entire crew shoulders responsibility for each play. I have taken this action because there must be accountability in our officiating program. Our institutions expect the highest level of officiating in all of our sports and it is the duty of the conference office to uphold that expectation.”
This move serves one big purpose — it shows that the league is willing to punish repeat-offender crews.
However, as I’ve written before, I believe it might be more beneficial for this particular crew to watch a game or two with SEC supervisor of officials Rogers Redding. Simply sitting at home for a couple of Saturdays doesn’t guarantee a better understanding of when flags should be thrown and when they shouldn’t.
A video classroom session with Redding might do the trick as well.
This suspension should also put the kibosh on conspiracy theorists who believe the SEC secretly told these officials to somehow “take care of” Top 10 teams Florida and LSU at the expense of Arkansas and Georgia.
This crew certainly wouldn’t take a month-long suspension silently if they’d been given under-the-table orders by the league.
This entire episode will also increase talk amongst some of us media types that it might be time for the SEC to at least explore the possibility of hiring full-time officials for it’s biggest cash cow sport.
Yes that would be an expensive move, but I believe I heard something about some new television revenue…
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