College Football FBS/FCS discussion thread

[marenlee]

I’m really starting to hate the college replay system. A lot of instances where officials are letting the play continue and not making a call because they know they have instant replay. I thought the point of replay was to only overturn a call if it’s definitive to overturn the call on the field. So many cases of that not happening. Kinda wish it was more like the NFL. Way too many play stoppages. The biggest argument I can think of against that is that the college officials are no where close to the level of the NFL. Especially in certain conferences.


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[IndyBison]

I’m really starting to hate the college replay system. A lot of instances where officials are letting the play continue and not making a call because they know they have instant replay. I thought the point of replay was to only overturn a call if it’s definitive to overturn the call on the field. So many cases of that not happening. Kinda wish it was more like the NFL. Way too many play stoppages. The biggest argument I can think of against that is that the college officials are no where close to the level of the NFL. Especially in certain conferences.

You could question any replay system that way. They almost always start out just correcting obvious errors on a limited basis. Then it expands every year because people have this misconception it can "fix" anything. They don't realize not all calls are black and white but replay forces it to become more black and white. Two football examples are the definition of a catch and illegal substitution. The first will always a point of debate. Before replay many catch/no catch decisions were based on the feel and some philosophy. But if it looked like a catch it was ruled a catch. But to get replay involved you have to try to remove the gray. Terms like "football move" and "survive the ground" came into the game. Some of that is good because it has made the call a little easier and more consistent. But it has also turned plays that many people would probably consider a catch be correctly ruled as incomplete (the infamous Calvin Johnson and Dez Bryant plays). They keep tweaking it at all levels and because a catch/fumble and forward/backward decisions are hard to reverse if they rule incomplete on the field the philosophy with replay is to let it play out. Now you have situations where the replay official isn't confirming/overturning the ruling on the field but actually making the ruling. The same people screaming that's not right are screaming for the replay official to rule on OPI/DPI which is even more subjective. The other example is illegal substitution. The defense is trying to run off a player just before the snap. He's a yard from the sideline when the ball is snapped. By philosophy that was not considered a foul because he had no impact on the play. But it became reviewable and it now called by the letter of the law. The NFL rule is similar and Bill Belichek (for all his faults he knows the rules as well as any coach) threw a challenge flag at a key point in a key game and got a first down because of it. Do we really need to be that technical with the substitution rule? That's debatable. But that's what you get when you implement replay.

I think ultimately replay is both good and bad. It helps with the big calls in critical points of the game and helps with the obvious black and white type of calls. The more subjectivity and judgement you put into it the more debate plays into it. Not to mention the flow of the game impact. I think basketball is even worse at the end of a game. Someone once said replay in football has improved accuracy from 96% to 98%. Is that 2% really worth it?

[oldmantutters]

I think a lot of frustration with replay is the almost refusal to admit officiating mistakes. And I know this is more of an NFL gripe than an NCAA gripe because there are more eyes on the (at most) 16 games/week. I know us casual fans have a misconstrued understanding of the rule book(s), but I also have watched a lot of football and know when something doesn't smell right; don't spit in my face and tell me it's raining. If an official makes a mistake, because hey, shit happens fast out there, admit it.

[IndyBison]

I think a lot of frustration with replay is the almost refusal to admit officiating mistakes. And I know this is more of an NFL gripe than an NCAA gripe because there are more eyes on the (at most) 16 games/week. I know us casual fans have a misconstrued understanding of the rule book(s), but I also have watched a lot of football and know when something doesn't smell right; don't spit in my face and tell me it's raining. If an official makes a mistake, because hey, shit happens fast out there, admit it.

Officiating mistakes are admitted to all the time. TV rules experts disagree with calls on the field every game. Conferences and the NFL issue statements to teams about calls and those sometimes make it to the media. One reason it may look different to you is there aren't nearly as many mistakes as you think there are. I see a lot of situations where people get up in arms about an incorrect call and they actually got it right. Sometimes that is due to fan bias. You see it how you want to see it. Bison fans by and large saw the pass against ISU as forward and ISU fans and everyone else who are sick of the Bison saw it as backward. Another reason is there are some calls that aren't necessarily right or wrong. They are close and could go either way or are very complex situations that are addressed as best they can in real time and with what replay allows. You would view that as a mistake, but the conference or league views it as a judgement call and there is no need to comment on it.

If replay sees a mistake they will overturn the call because they are graded too. Their post season assignments (the wholly grail for any official) and renewal for the following season are based entirely on those grades. They wouldn't risk not overturning something because it would make the on field official look bad and risk getting a downgrade themselves. But mistakes still happen. No different than the OSU QB and WR reading the play differently and the INT happens at the end of the game. Or the Seahawks last night completely forgetting the play clock was running and getting the very costly DOG penalty.

[Gully]

After watching fb for decades now, I would actually prefer it would go back to the way it was before replay. Officials sometimes make mistakes just like players or coaches, so the human element was part of it. If anything, it seems like there is more controversy now than there was before the use of replay. I know some of that is due to more media (social and traditional) but I don't get the sense that the outcomes are really much better than they used to be. It seems like there is just as much angst, if not more, than before. Plus things have gotten much more technical (not just due to replay, but rule changes in general) and common sense seems to have gone out the door.

Just my opinion.

[Gully]

I thought it was a catch, fumble and recovery but to be fair, I have not watched it in real speed. I'll go look for that clip.

[Gully]

Just watched it at full speed and in slow motion. I understand what people are saying about it looking very different...the real time view to me looked incomplete and all of the slow motion looked complete. But then, how long do you need to hold it to possess it? A football move? How many players and coaches can even define what that is? So I'm not arguing the call as much as suggesting they need to simplify the rules to reflect the understanding of those involved in the game because I don't think there is alignment.

[1998braves64]

I don't mind replay so much. I think people (all fans in general) just need to accept and move on never has a mistake been overturned after the replay official makes a confirmation or overturn. the only time I got perturbed by it was that EWU game where they went to review must of been every other play it seemed like and the game took 4 1/2 -5 hours or something.

That said many of here still carry the Jenson fumble memory to this day, luckily for us it has been somewhat negated by a large number of championships. Makes forgetting about it a lot easier at least for me. We've beat EWU multiple times since then so that helps as well.

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[Professor Chaos]

After watching fb for decades now, I would actually prefer it would go back to the way it was before replay. Officials sometimes make mistakes just like players or coaches, so the human element was part of it. If anything, it seems like there is more controversy now than there was before the use of replay. I know some of that is due to more media (social and traditional) but I don't get the sense that the outcomes are really much better than they used to be. It seems like there is just as much angst, if not more, than before. Plus things have gotten much more technical (not just due to replay, but rule changes in general) and common sense seems to have gone out the door.

Just my opinion.

I'd disagree, I think replay is a good thing. If you have the technology you should use it. It messes with game flow sometimes and even the replay official screws up sometimes but replay corrects a lot more mistakes than it makes in the end.

[bisonp]

After watching fb for decades now, I would actually prefer it would go back to the way it was before replay. Officials sometimes make mistakes just like players or coaches, so the human element was part of it. If anything, it seems like there is more controversy now than there was before the use of replay. I know some of that is due to more media (social and traditional) but I don't get the sense that the outcomes are really much better than they used to be. It seems like there is just as much angst, if not more, than before. Plus things have gotten much more technical (not just due to replay, but rule changes in general) and common sense seems to have gone out the door.

Just my opinion.

Agree. Replay has not improved the game and the more they inject it the worse it gets. The NFL learned that lesson once before, but forgot it.