Big Ten college football fans

[302 LX Eric]

Well, I'm a big fan of...well you can probably guess. Got my Bachelor of Science in Business Administration degree with a major in Accounting back in 1996.

I've only seen clips of the bad calls and of Joe Pa running after that ref. I think for a ~70 year old man he probably runs the 40 in the 4.8-4.9 range. hehehe Seriously though, the Big Ten officiating crews have had a melt down this year. But it goes back further than that: i.e. the Michigan vs. Illinois game a couple years ago when Michigan 'fumbled' like three times in the second half when in reality they only fumble once - or something like that. Anywho, they lost the game and should have won. Same thing with Penn State a couple weeks ago.

I guess there are two views to the whole situation:

1) What goes around, comes around / you win some, you lose some; and

2) Get instant replay at all Big-Ten games. Cost is somewhere b/t $90,000 - $100,000 per stadium, which is definitely affordable considering the money in the Big Ten.

What's interesting is that Lloyd Carr of Michigan is beginning to change his tune in this debate. For years he was against instant replay but just last week he was quoted in The Columbus Dispatch as saying something to the effect of 'the referee situation has deteriorated so much that we have to look at all available options, (including instant replay).' There is so much on the line these days with the whole BCS and other big money factors that maybe instant replay is the way to go.

One other factor that I would like to see is accountability. Make the officiating crews accountable to their calls (or lack thereof). They need to be evaluated on their performance - just as we all are in our daily jobs. If they blow a game winning call - bench them for a week without pay, or something. If you don't perform up to a certain standard, well then you're out.

I'm sure that being a referee or other member of the crew has got to be a tough job and that there will be mistakes, I guess the only question left to answer is how much are we willing to accept?

E