So, how is money funneled to officials.

[WildDawg]

If it is being done for everyone else that touches college football, then it HAS to be making it to officials somewhere. If they aren't getting any, then they are just dumb.

[Apoplectic]

Tcun method - fall guy with burner phones and a slush fund

[Todd4State]

The problem with officiating is multi fold:

1. We STILL have conference officials rather than NCAA officials.

2. There are a lot of politics involved with becoming an official. It's more about who you know than what you know.

3. There are no ramifications that are made public for incompetent officiating. The crew that did the Egg Bowl should be fired. Now, for all we know something may have happened...or maybe not. They did do the SEC Championship Game but I don't believe they did any bowls. Honestly if it was made public I think things would be a little easier to swallow and I think the officials would pay more attention to what they are doing. It's not fair that coaches can't say anything about them in a press conference or the school gets fined while officials pretty much get a complete pass. And then you have that asshat that refused to call a timeout when Dan was literally in his face- that's not incompetence...it's spite. And that official has no place officiating if he is going to act like that.

4. The attitude from the SEC for years has been- "These are common men who do this thankless job because they love football." That's all well and good but they should still do their job well.

[thf24]

The problem with officiating is multi fold:

1. We STILL have conference officials rather than NCAA officials.

2. There are a lot of politics involved with becoming an official. It's more about who you know than what you know.

3. There are no ramifications that are made public for incompetent officiating. The crew that did the Egg Bowl should be fired. Now, for all we know something may have happened...or maybe not. They did do the SEC Championship Game but I don't believe they did any bowls. Honestly if it was made public I think things would be a little easier to swallow and I think the officials would pay more attention to what they are doing. It's not fair that coaches can't say anything about them in a press conference or the school gets fined while officials pretty much get a complete pass. And then you have that asshat that refused to call a timeout when Dan was literally in his face- that's not incompetence...it's spite. And that official has no place officiating if he is going to act like that.

4. The attitude from the SEC for years has been- "These are common men who do this thankless job because they love football." That's all well and good but they should still do their job well.

It might make fans happier if there was visible accountability for poor performance, but the only way that's going to happen is to create a significant number of full-time positions for officials. Hard to hold anything over a guy's head when his bread and butter comes largely from somewhere else. If you start publicly dragging guys over the coals for their performance in what's probably a fun weekend gig for most, you'd probably see most of them quit. I know I would.

That being said, I'm not sure if it would result in much of a discernible difference. We might get a few more good calls from better focus and attentiveness, but it wouldn't change the fact that you have imperfect humans making quick judgments on split-second events.

I think the way to cut down on these clearly bad, game-changing calls is to, first, make more calls reviewable, and make judgement calls selectively reversible if definitive (for example, make a late hit reversible if replay shows the ballcarrier was still in bounds). Then, to avoid 20 reviews a game, do away with booth-initiated reviews, give coaches three challenges a game and make them earn reversals. Again, you're never going to do away with bad calls completely with humans involved, but I think this would prevent the most egregious, game-changing calls.

I do completely agree about the Egg Bowl crew. That's a situation where they should have acknowledged what their brains had to have been telling them was going on and do something about it. They don't need to be required to behave like robots when their performance clearly proves they aren't.

[tcdog70]

Did I dream this?? are SEC Refs all ex SEC players?

[Jack Lambert]

They have financial issues just like everyone else. They have normal jobs during the week. It's not hard to find them. Just catch them when they are out shopping or eating and offer cash.

There is no doubt in my mind there has been refs take money. Now last night the Big 10 refs just missed calls. They missed calls in our bowl game. I watched it live and on TV. That 75 yard Jackson run, there could have been two holding calls that did not get called. Every state fan booed. You could not see the holds on TV.

That play after GA's QB got tackle and the bama player shoved his head while getting up, the ref was right there, how did that one not get called? They were either on the take or they just plain didn't care. Since it was two SEC schools they could have used SEC refs. Don't tell me that was the best crew out there.

[Cooterpoot]

The BS excuse of "we're letting them play" needs to end. It's the be all, end all of officiating ass covering. That punt block call cost GA points last night in all likelihood. Who knows about the facemask and the shove to the head...It was simply bad and none of the media is going to talk about it today.

[BB30]

I used to know an old SEC football official and he swore there were no payouts or certain teams getting the benefit of the doubt. He was a state fan for what it is worth. He just wrote it off as there are bad officials just as there are bad salesmen.

One thing I have started to think about the officials are seeing everything in real time it is hard even with all of them on the field to pay attention to every single thing going on. We get the benefit of watching from a tv screen above the field of play and can see the entire offense and defense on a screen and often get replays of every play. These guys are eye level with players that are twice their size trying to watch for multiple penalties. These games also involve some of the biggest and fastest athletes in college athletics its plain hard to keep up with everything. It just isn't a very easy job and one I am glad I don't have to do. Yes, some are blatantly bad but for the most part I think games are called fairly well and there are maybe a handful of games that officiating may have played a minor role in the outcome. Which one is too many but that is part of it until they find some way to officiate with technology there will always be human error involved.

[AusTexDawg]

The problem with officiating is multi fold: 1. We STILL have conference officials rather than NCAA officials.

Lots of good points in your post, but fixing this^ would seem to be the most obvious. Whether the default is "Let them play," or call targeting 3-4x per game, that approach should be enforced consistently across all conferences.

[thf24]

There MIGHT be isolated instances of a single official taking payouts, but it's not possible for it to happen on an organized, regular basis. It would require too many people knowing about it to keep it quiet. Even the lone wolf is unlikely as one guy trying to significantly alter the course of a game would stick out like a sore thumb to the rest of the crew.

[Mimi's Babies]

Tcun method - fall guy with burner phones and a slush fund

And now the "Sugar Babies" according to the C liar yesterday, at $2,800 per month.

[MrKotter]

Did I dream this?? are SEC Refs all ex SEC players?

No. A lot of them didn?t play college football. Just came up through the ranks of HS officiating to smaller college football and on to the SEC and other conferences

[TUSK]

The REC simply makes an electronic funds transfer to the RFID chip we have implanted in each of their craniums...