Outback Bowl - C-USA admits officials were wrong
 

Thank god they're doing something about it. If you didn't see what happened, Iowa just hit a field goal against Florida. They were down 7 and recovered the onside kick, but the officials called it back saying Iowa was offsides.

Replays show that Iowa wasn't offsides, and Florida recovered the 2nd onside kick, blowing any chances Iowa had of a comeback.

The most ridiculous thing is that this wasn't the only call that was dead wrong, there were numerous others in Floridas favor. There were penalties on things that just didn't happen.

Two more examples:

Iowa was flagged for helmet to helmet contact, a 15 yard penalty. In fact, the defenders shoulderpad hit the helmet, which is perfectly legal. I believe Florida would not have scored the touchdown at the end of the half, if it wasn't for this.

Iowa was flagged for facemask, but they didn't do it. Florida's player pulled the facemask of the Iowa player, but Iowa was penalized for it.

http://www.the-dispatch.com/apps/pbc...07&cachetime=5

Yeah man, it most definitely sucks, but what're you gonna do? I mean fucking refs will always fuck up tremendously from time to time, whether its honest mistakes or not.

Personally, I'm a member of the Raider Nation, and I think we all remember when we got "tucked" against the Patriots a few years back.

Fucking refs.

I swear, all I hear about from the Raider fans is about that play. You went to the Super Bowl the next year and lost without the benefit of a supposed bad call. Time to move on and forget about 2001.

Now what are they going to do about with the officials on the field? Their mistake was very costly toward one team. The opposing team (Florida) probably rejoiced at it! Every official makes a bad call now and then. If one bad call cost a game, what about the bad call for the other team that could have cost them the game? Good and bad calls both ways, and we (the public) emphasize the bad ones.

It's not just one bad call. There were about 5, 3 of which had a tremendous impact on the outcome of the game. Mistakes happen, sure, if it was just one, I wouldn't give a shit.

Somewhere there laughs some very rich gamblers. ;)

What were the odds on the Outback Bowl and the Michigan - Nebraska game and who won the big money......... just saying.

In my opinion the problem is "replay". Either use it or get rid of it. A booth official deciding isn't cutting it. More importanly get a system by which a coach can ask for a review ala the NFL redflag. The plays above are situations where it should have been used. Peterson's fumble on the 1 in Oklahoma-Oregon game. Michigan taking 2 time outs to "influence" th refs to review plays. Lots of other opportunities as well.

I was at the game. There were numerous bad calls. They went both ways. One of Iowa's earlier 'drives' was a combination of three questionable calls against the Gators.

I agree that it is hard, especially in bowl games, to control the game. At the beginning, the teams are so jacked up that there are 'over-eagerness' penalties galore. As was stated in the article, the refs need to use their judgement when deciding if an action was truly a foul and was someone injured or was the outcome of the game affected. Ex. Calling a 15 yard 'unsportsmanlike' penalty when a guy jumps up after being tackled hard and gets in another guys face. No harm, no foul. Just tell them both to settle down and seperate them.

The refs made several good calls in that game too. There were two touchdown catches that were so close that it took replay to confirm them but the refs got them right on the field the first time.

In this case, Iowa should not have let themselves get down 24-7 at the half and then half to pass, pass, pass, the entire second half. JMHO.

Than again, the refs shouldn't have kept them from having any chance of coming back. That's all I'm sayin.