College Sports: Today's Oklahoma-Oregon Game

In the College Football Pick Em contest, I selected Oklahoma to upset Oregon today. Which they did. Beat them soundly. Except, as you'll know if you watched the game, some corrupt official in the replay booth watched a videotape which conclusively showed that the call on the field was correct, and that Oregon had touched the onside kick before it went 10 yards... and he instead inexplicably ruled there was indisputable visual proof OKLAHOMA touched the ball first. They didn't say how many hits of acid he took first, nor how many tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars he was paid.

I'm sure Oklahoma will get a letter of apology from the NCAA. Perhaps the replay booth official will get suspended. Maybe he'll even get fired. He should get criminally investigated.

But what about our contest? I should WIN my bet on Oklahoma, because they WON that game... and never mind that official's call and the result it had on the scoreboard.

Did anyone else in this contest pick Oklahoma? I think they should be considered the winner of that game. Don't you? I mean, since when should outright corruption or blindness on the scale of Helen Keller or Ray Charles decide the outcome of a game?

BHN

I also took Oklahoma to win, and it was maybe the most blatently corrupt call i've seen since the French judge decided the Russians beat the Canadiens in olympic figure skating. As far as the win getting changed we'll see what yahoo does, i wouldn't hold my breath on anything changing though.

I didn't get to see that, or the "highlights", but obviously the Dean at Oklahoma is on your side, BHN:

OU president wants game off books, Pac-10 officials suspended

University of Oklahoma president David Boren sent a letter to Big 12 commissioner Kevin Weiberg on Monday, asking him to push for the Sooners' game against Oregon to be eliminated from the record books and having the Pac-10 officials involved in the game suspended for the remainder of the season.

"To describe the lapses in accurate officiating at the Oklahoma-Oregon football game last Saturday as constituting an outrageous injustice is an understatement," Boren wrote in the letter dated Monday.

Source:

CBS Sportsline - Link

Well, they suspended the officials, including the replay booth official, for one game. Hardly sufficient. Either the replay official was blind and/or corrupt in making his ruling, or the head field referee was deaf, ret@rded and/or corrupt in failing to understand the ruling the replay official was making from the booth. And if it was the latter, then why wasn't the replay booth official running down onto the field screaming, "WAIT, WAIT, YOU IDIOT!!!!"

Absolutely unbelievable that such a ruling could be made, much less in a game between ranked teams. And just brutal that defeat could be snatched from the jaws of victory in such an atrocious manner.

I'm anything but an Oklahoma fan, and in fact tend to like the Oregon Ducks, but that was theft. I hope that when the time to dish out bowl berths comes at season's end, the NCAA stops apologizing and counts that as a win for Oklahoma and a loss for Oregon. That's certainly what it was, but for the corrupted call which altered the game's outcome in its final two minutes.

Nobody who saw the game, no matter how much they like Oregon, could disagree. Not since Nebraska's infamous five-down, last-second win has such a putrid victory been awarded to a ranked football team. I hope they lose five in a row.

BHN


UPDATE & P.S.!!!! Hey, I just noticed!!!! This is my 1,000th post!!!! What a signal occasion!!!! And how utterly appropriate that it should be a rant, huh Gibbsy, TRD, Y.R., Giants Fan, Aegis and all other veterans? I mean, wouldn't it have been sad if my 1,000th post had been a milquetoast "Hey, this game should be a good matchup" or "this baseball player reminds me of a 2nd baseman who played for the Boston Braves in the 1920's" affair? But NO! I came through. I gave y'all a very spirited rant... well, ok, a full-fledged temper tantrum.

The first 800 came in about 6 or 8 weeks. The last 200 have taken 9 months. I wonder how long the next 1,000 will take....

[Edited on 9/20/06 by BaseballHistoryNut]

Congrats on the 1000th post, your work is always top quality and a pleasure to read. As far as the BCS is concerned for bowl games, i heard a bunch of people who vote in polls, voted Oklahoma ahead of Oregon because of this fiasco, hopefully many others did aswell. I really like that little phrase "snatching defeat from the jaws of victory", it gets used around here alot in political races when it comes to South Dakota Democrats, but that's neither here nor there, it's just one of my favorites.

Here is a thing that was posted on the AOL Message boards for College football. This was posted by an Oregon fan.

And I quote:

"Laying low under the radar for years, Saturday's referees crew have finally been found out. They're the cause of not just the outcome of yesterday's game but many other larger, global issues. As for yesterday's game, here's a shortened list of all the things caused by the referees: I wanted everyone to have a full recap, just to make it easy to see how Oregon's play had NOTHING to do with the outcome and nothing was Oklahoma's fault. The refs caused all this:

The refs caused Oklahoma to give up 501 yards of offense.

The refs caused Stewart to go off for 144 yards and a better average than Peterson, by the way.

The refs caused Paysinger to be wide open by 10 yards on a 20 yard route for the winning TD.

Dixon's 16 yard, untouched run into the endzone to get Oregon within six was a direct result of the refs failing to make a tackle for Oklahoma. Something they did repeatedly all day long that needs to be investigated.

The refs caused Oklahoma to only get 6 points when Malcolm Kelly pushed off Walter Thurmond, got seperation and scored a TD. This is an atrocity. Oklahoma should've been awarded 12 points for that play. I'm outraged myself.

The refs caused Oklahoma to have to go too far for their last TD of the 3rd quarter. They gave Oklahoma a play that never happened when the clock went out and Malcolm Kelly went the distance. Then only spotted the ball 8 yards AHEAD of where he stepped out. Saying he stepped out at the Oregon 47 instead of the OU 47. They should've placed the ball first and goal on the 1 yard line. That's what god wanted I believe. Again, those refs did not give Oklahoma enough of an advantage in the 3rd quarter and thats incredibly unfair.

The refs caused more work for the sooners when they mysteriously only gave A.D. an extra 2 yards on the spot when he dove for the sticks in the 4th quarter. Causing it to be 4th and inches instead of 4th and 2. Oklahoma deserved the 1st down even though they had come up short. 1 ref I know should be fired for this. Total incompetence.

The refs caused OU to use all their T.O's ahead of time because of all the noise. Clearly, the refs have a duty to take all home field advantage away from Oregon, and allow god's team to play as if they're in their own backyard. Yeah, I know OU prepared all weak. I know, everyone said "We've played in hostile enviroments before." Still, the refs should of done something about it. Loud noise at a football game is wrong. These are just young guys and to ask them to play with that kind of distraction is wrong. There should be an investigation.

The refs caused OU to not score TD's on three seperate occasion when they had first downs on the 2,3 and 7 of Oregon. Again, Oregon had nothing to do with it, it was the refs. Huge hits by Chung,Ageyman and Phillips should of been wiped out. Their making plays down there was unfair, the refs should've seen it and done something about it.

The refs also caused Oregon to have an unfair advantage as well by making sure 2 defensive starters were injured during the game. After causing standout tackle Jeremy Gibbs to be injured, they also made sure starting LB Brent Haberly was injured. This gave Oregon an unfair advantage by making them play with 2 guys who weren't as good. The NCAA will surely discuss this next week.

The refs caused the kick to be blocked. Yes, I've watched the tape (If you look closely frame by frame I swear this happens.) One of the refs runs towards the line at the last second and joins the play, pushing along the Oregon line toward the kicker providing an extra push needed for Blair Phillips to block the field goal. Without the referees help, Oregon wouldn't have blocked the kick, it would've been impossible. Of course, in real-time its impossible to see this, but the film doesn't lie.

It's also well a proven fact that this referee crew is the cause of obesity, rising gas prices and diplomacy issues."

lol.

And also BHN Congrats on the 1,000th post.

That's all cute, but the winning TD never happens without the (1) corruption or (2) imbecility [there is no third choice] of the officiating staff. That's a stone cold fact.

Yeah, Oklahoma could--and should--have overcome it. Jack Clark shouldn't have butchered a foul popup which a Little Leaguer would have caught, and if he hadn't, Don Denkinger's call at first probably gets forgotten and the Cards probably win the 1985 Series in 6 games. But Clark's perennial horribleness with his glove--and Herzog's inexplicable decision to leave the defensively clueless Clark on the field for the bottom of the ninth--don't change what Denkinger did.

And NOTHING about Oklahoma's defense changes the fact those officials need new jobs, nor the fact at least one of them may need a new residence inside a penitentiary, since it's incomprehensible that the replay could have been butchered in the manner it was.

BHN

from what i read about how awesome Oregon played, they should have won the game by about 100 points and this wouldn't be an issue. Sure Oregon had some great numbers but they had an innability to score until the game was on the line, and someone helped them out in a not so subtle fashion.

Now the replay official has requested, and received, a leave of absence for the rest of the season. That's a start. How about until next February 30th? And how about he serves his leave of absence in San Quentin? Perhaps with my two Death Row clients? (OK, Jim, that last one is a little much. Regular prison time will suffice....)

One other thing: I will NOT be handling his appeal. Not that I'm p!ssed or anything.

BHN

First of all, congrats on 1,000 posts. And not just two-word "me too" stuff, or single line flamage. Some good quality, well thought out content.

Enough slobbering, on to the topic.

Thought it was interesting my ol' buddy Bob Knight chimed in on this. Here's a link- msn.foxsports.com...

[sarcasm on] Now Coach Knight sure isn't one to hold a grudge[sarcasm off] but I wonder if this might not be just a little bit also about Kelvin Sampson (the former OU coach) now being at Indiana? Maybe? Just a little?

Naaahhhh.

(but he does have a point)

[edit to add] Just noticed this was post 201 for me. So I've been here 2 days longer and you've got me by 800 posts. But then I've always been the classic underachiever.

[Edited on 9/21/06 by yeahright]

Yes, he does. Now if it would only run full circle, and Nebraska would lose a really, really, really big game because of something as outrageous as their 5-down TD while time expired.

Oh, that's right. Nebraska no longer plays important games.