Letters to the Editor

King Kaufman's Sports Daily Oklahomans agree: Instant replay is a joke! OK, one state down, 49 to go. [2006-09-20]

• The price of officiating mistakes

  While I agree that the officiating mistakes in the OU-Oregon game did not reach historical or biblical proportions, when you examine what's potentially riding on that game, I can't help but agree with the OU people. Because there's no playoff system in college football, one loss essentially means you're out of the running for a national championship. Not that I think OU has the firepower to contend for a national title this year, but they are certainly among the top 15 or 20 teams in the country. That loss effectively dashed their hopes at a national title, and seriously dented their hopes of a BCS bid -- and all of the money/exposure/hype/recruiting value/alumni support/etc. that come with a BCS bid. And to make matters worse, those calls weren't even arguable ... they were OBVIOUS. Of course under the pressure of time and with umpteen thousand screaming fans, the replay official's job is far from easy. Maybe there was a fly on his monitor. But it definitely cost OU more than just a loss in a sporting contest. We're talking mucho diniero here.

  And I don't necessarily fault OU for threatening to never play another Pac-10 opponent until the refereeing policy is changed. Of course it's ridiculous to claim that the officials were actively cheating or trying to screw OU. But internal bias can be a strong and often underappreciated influence. It colors the way you see things. 5 different people can have 5 different interpretations of the same event based on their internal biases. The possibility that officials' calls will be colored by their inherent bias toward the conference which employs them should be enough to require that non-conference games be officiated by neutral officials. And I realize that should be an oxymoron, but let's face it ... we're all human.

  -- tbrandel
  [Read tbrandel's other letters]
  Permalink Flag Wednesday, September 20, 2006 09:41 AM
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