For some reason I thought that the visiting team in a non-conference game always selected the officiating crew. I didn't think it was up to Dr. White as to what officials would call, say, the USC game. Is this wrong?
MDL '02 | Email | Homepage | 02.20.06 - 3:32 pm | #

I'm pretty sure we've got carte blanche to select officiating crews (with opponent approval, of course).
Jay | Email | Homepage | 02.20.06 - 4:06 pm | #

Agree of course on the number and length of TV timeouts, particularly NBC. But, as you say, TV timeouts are a sacred cow. However, to shorten games and bring back more coaching strategy, I say bring back the tie. Force a coach to go for two or settle for a tie. Nothing wring with a tie, anyway. Would people still be talking about 1966 if ND won 13 to 10 in OT? I think not. The NC bowl game is the only game that needs an OT.

Bring back the tie! (Not to be confused with bringing back Ty.) Thank you for your support.
Daniel | Email | Homepage | 02.20.06 - 4:44 pm | #

I'm in full support of the tie. In fact, we've been meaning to do a post on it.
Jay | Email | Homepage | 02.20.06 - 4:53 pm | #

MDL, I just had an email exchange with a guy at the National Association of Sports Officials (NASO) who confirmed that generally speaking, the officials in a non-conference game are from the visiting team's conference. However, there is always mutual agreement from the home team, and there are always exceptions.

Why it's not traditionally from a neutral-party conference is beyond me. But barring the elimination of all conference affiliation, it should change.
Jay | Email | Homepage | 02.20.06 - 4:55 pm | #

Real Men with Plastic Hair don't settle for ties. Ask Jimmy Johnson. It cost him the NC in 1988. Brass Balls, my man! Brass Balls!

To hell with the tie. How can you rob a team which has made a fantastic comeback, rallying from 2-3 scores back, by cutting off their momentum and ending the game? You gotta give the kids a chance to play it out.

Some of the best games of the last few years have come down to the "extra inning" of overtime football. Though initially I was not a proponent of the overtime period, I now sit on the bandwagon. Football wasn't meant to have no winner declared at the end of an epic battle. For all the blood and guts and sweat, a tie robs everyone of the sense of closure. It makes us reflect on the wins with a twinkle of magic, and it makes the losses painful. That magic and that pain is what college football is all about.
Lance Boil | Email | Homepage | 02.20.06 - 5:18 pm | #

"Additionally, a visiting non-conference institution is not able to opt out of using replay if the host institution chooses to implement the system (that means you, Poodle)."

Does this mean that the Poodle will opt out next year on his homefield?
horse95 | Email | Homepage | 02.20.06 - 5:55 pm | #

horse, based on the wording of the release, the implication seems to be that there might be a case where a home team could choose whether or not to have replay. I have no idea what those circumstances would be. Maybe a game against a I-AA opponent whose facilities are not set up to handle instant replay? Who knows.
Jay | Email | Homepage | 02.20.06 - 6:17 pm | #

Yago here.

Get rid of instant replay -- leads to crap officiating like the SB this year. TV doesn't see everything either. Just let the chips fall where they may. Hurts momentum, takes the crowd out. Not convinced? Look at the NFL stats on overturned calls. It should be reasonably equal across all officials -- but it is NOT! Huge swings depending on the official in the booth.

To those who argue it takes away the really bad calls, I say this: officials are now afraid to make the call. And you can't tell me that the OSU tight-end didn't catch the ball, make a football move, pull on his scrotum and fumble. Call on the field was correct and the TD should stand -- Tommy Z, I owe you a kamakazi when you turn 21.. OSU was better that day than the Irish, but both were better than the officials.

Also, instant replay can overturn fumbles, but can't catch obvious holding penalties or obvious illegal pushes of the ball carrier? What sense does that make?

Where is replay ok? If a network chooses to show the movie "Heidi" and TVLand. Keep it the h--- out of sports.


Want to shorten football? Don't play a 12th game. If you can't take a 3:30 hour football game, give up golf and stay away from Viagra.

Damn, no wonder we get dictators in this world. Only way to get things done. And don't get me started on "designated hitters" -- the porn of the sports world.

Now, I got to head to emergency room, it's been about four hours. Pray for me.
Yago | Email | Homepage | 02.20.06 - 7:11 pm | #

horse, Jay, the Pac-10 requires USC to use instant replay for home games. The "opt out" last year was only for non-conference games, and only the road team got to choose. Maybe the Pac-10 isn't legislating what they do in home non-conference games, but I'm pretty sure that last year they mandated all Pac-10 teams to use instant replay for home games, non-conference or not.
Nate | Email | Homepage | 02.20.06 - 7:15 pm | #

"Real Men with Plastic Hair don't settle for ties. Ask Jimmy Johnson. It cost him the NC in 1988."

"You gotta give the kids a chance to play it out."

Lance, you got the arguments right, but your conclusion is wrong. Jimmy Johnson doesn't go for two if he has OT to fall back on and then you lose the drama of him having to make that decision and then succeed or fail. It was far more exciting when some coach had to decide whether or not to go for two. And then you have one play decide the game within the flow of the game rather than a separate new game with its own new rules.

Lance, gentle reader, "bring back the tie" was a rallying cry, not meant to imply that many games would end in a tie - most likely it forces someone to go for two late in the game. "Bring back the tie" is just catchier than "OT sucks".

Of course, you do have that occasional glorious tie that everyone discusses for 40 years.
Daniel | Email | Homepage | 02.20.06 - 8:18 pm | #

1) The assignment of officials is in the contract. Why on earth would a conference team EVER agree to a contract that disallowed the use of its own crew 50% of the time?

ND will forever be screwed in that it does not have conference status (we use Big Ten at the Coliseum, for example). For me, it's well worth the price.

2) Excellent idea to lower kicking tee. This will reward superior coverage teams, as Notre Dame will become!

3) The start of the clock upon toe meeting leather is going to have a bigger impact at the end of a game than you might imagine. If there are less than 5 seconds, the receiving team will not get to runa a play, nor a runback. The kicker will simply kick it sky high and time will expire. In fact, since it is a free kick, a punt may be in order. I am not certain it is allowed - but it should be.

4) Regardless the methods used, we will have monumental arguments about all the injustices we'll encounter. Ain't this a great game?!
Ed | Email | Homepage | 02.20.06 - 8:28 pm | #

Remember we had MAC refs in 90's and I think they did a good job.

So, it's time for ND to contract them for home games for future.
Tintin84 | Email | Homepage | 02.20.06 - 9:31 pm | #

http://www.pac-10.org/sports/m-f.../ 080805aac.html

"To allow for certain specific types of officiating decisions to be immediately reviewed and corrected, if warranted, during all Conference games and home non-conference games with the approval of the visiting non-conference institution."

Nate, you're right. And now the visitor approval part is OBE. I should have looked this up before asking the question.

Ed, re point 3, I believe the receiving team will still run their return - play will continue with the clock expired until the ball is down. This may, however eliminate the "fair catch" option to save time for a play from scrimmage.
horse95 | Email | Homepage | 02.20.06 - 9:36 pm | #

Completely OT, but have you guys seen this- http://www.dabearz.com/forums/do...php?do=cat& id=3

Its old playbooks from the NFL and college. One of them is from the 2003 New England Patriots (96 pages in PDF format) offense. This is of course Weis' final NFL scheme and although I'm sure its incomplete could impart some insight.
PantsB | Email | Homepage | 02.20.06 - 10:51 pm | #

Looks a bit familiar PantsB
Pat | Email | Homepage | 02.20.06 - 11:40 pm | #

Can we get Sun Belt officials for the Michigan game? Wouldn't that cause Carr to stroke out? On the other hand, maybe we want him around for a few more years.....
GRNDFan | Email | Homepage | 02.21.06 - 9:13 am | #

I vaguely remembered the post that included the huddle markup but I wasn't sure if you'd had more than the one page. I was just giving the headsup.
PantsB | Email | Homepage | 02.21.06 - 10:47 am | #

You can't compare NFL replay and college replay. In the NFL, the on-field ref has to overturn his own decision (which is why the Seahawks aren't the super bowl champs right now). That's why you see such disparity in which crews get overturned in the NFL. At least in college, it's a guy that didn't make the call that overturns it.
JohnWA | Email | Homepage | 02.21.06 - 10:56 am | #

Jay,

L.A. Times has an article today (Tues. 2/21) about preparing for the NFL combine that features Anthony Fasano. Sorry, I don't have a link.
Andy | Email | Homepage | 02.21.06 - 12:18 pm | #

I think I find it (I googled 'fasano' and 'los angeles' in Google's sports news section). Not a bad read:

http://www.latimes.com/sports/fo...eadlines- sports
atepesm | Email | Homepage | 02.21.06 - 4:34 pm | #

Yago - Tommy Z is already 21, and if he isn't, it doesn't matter, he drinks like a fish anyways.
To Yago: | Email | Homepage | 02.22.06 - 9:15 am | #

HA! I'd drink Zibby under the table (as long as I was drinkin' sody-pop).
Joe | Email | Homepage | 02.23.06 - 11:26 pm | #

Horse - my point was that a kicker will pop the kick as high as he can (think wdge shot in golf), which will allow the cover team to get to and surround the receiver. There will be no realisitc chance for a runback, and the clock will expire. Think of a punt from midfield that is fair caught on the 10. In this case, the catch would be at about the 25 or 30. Game over.
Ed | Email | Homepage | 02.24.06 - 3:23 am | #

I like it, except for shortening half-time. Maybe marching bands aren't that big a deal down in South Bend, but at a lot of schools the marching band is a huge tradition, and shortening halftime cuts into their program time. Plus, they work incredibly hard at what they do, and taking away 5 minutes of their time in the limelight would be pretty devestating.
Jake | Email | Homepage | 03.14.06 - 2:46 am | #