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College Football Replay a Bad Idea |
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Monday, 13 June 2005 |
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In the rush to "fix" what is broken with college
football the Big Ten will introduce replay into conference games this
fall. While I applaud the Big Ten for being innovative, and for their
efforts to improve the quality of the game, I must take a step back and
offer great pause at this truly un-American and un-Patriotic action.
(Yes I'm kidding about it being un-American and un-Patriotic, but I've
learned from the Bush administration that it is very easy to demonize
something you do not like by simply referring to it as un-American or
un-Patriotic. As such, I will continue to do so throughout this piece.)Now you might say, "But John... what is wrong with replay? Is it not a
good idea overall? Does it not improve the quality of the game? Is that
not American and patriotic in and of itself?" (And mind you, if you
spoke to me that way I would want to kill you.... But back to the point.)
I would take exception after you bring up these points and attempt to
assure me that replay is good for the game. And I will now delineate to
you why I find replay abhorrent and why it is anti-American and should
be opposed like all of the enemy combatants and terrorists who want to
destroy all that is good about college football and America itself.
First off, mistakes in officiating are a part of football. And I will
argue that they are part of what makes football great. College football
is not (nor should it be) some bullshit sterile environment of precise
measure and accurate judgment; it is subjective, it is guesswork, and
it is a whole gaggle of maybes.
While I can grant you the fact that quality officiating and a lack of
mistakes is a positive for the game overall, I do not think replay is
the way to achieve it. Nor do I think that perfection in officiating or
refereeing is the highest end that college football should strive for.
The reason I enjoy these "mistakes" that the Big Ten is attempting to
eliminate, consists of a variety of reasons. Let me highlight a few for
you here.
Mistakes are Damn Fun
Do you not remember the fun you could have just a scant year or so ago
debating the pass interference call in the Fiesta Bowl that eventually
allowed Ohio State to take the title from Miami? And if that call
wasn't enough by itself you have a multitude of missed calls by
officials before we even got into overtime in that game. Clipping on
punt returns, an earlier missed PI, and holding all day long that kept
Ken Dorsey from meeting his maker well before the concussion he
suffered late in the game.
Debating these calls and issues are part of the allure of college
football. Arguing with those idiots from the (insert your choice here:
SEC, B12, B10. etc..) about how your team got robbed in that OOC game
with their officials is as vital a part of the game as are beers and
burnt burgers beforehand.
Football is not Precise
You and I both know football is not a game that is what a scientist
would exactly call precise. And part of the joy of the sport is in the
back and forth give and take of the inaccuracy.
How many times have you watched your team clearly get the first down
only to see the dopey referee pick up the ball and spot it a full yard
short? How about those chains in general? Have you seen the precision
they yield when they're run across the field and one referee tries to
line the little marker on the chain up with the yardline to get an
accurate reading? Scientific measurements this is not.
You have to realize the imperfection in the sport. A first down is
awarded in football with about the same accuracy and precision that my
old Italian grandmother used to cook - measurements we're just ballpark
guesswork and a little pinch here and a shake there and it was good
enough.
Other Things are More Important
Not to take too much away from officiating accuracy, but there are a
whole lot of bigger issues that should be on the front burner for the
Big Ten (more accurately the NCAA). The most obvious is the debacle
that is the BCS and its ever-present tweak and adjust formula. Now
there is no longer a strength of schedule component and the structure
has been changed once again. Add in the fact that conferences like the
MWC or CUSA have a decent argument that they are as strong as the "New
Big East" and the BCS is even uglier.
There are also issues every year of players receiving some small sum
from a coach or a booster and being banned by the NCAA or investigated
ad infinitum. And though I'm sure many of these "loans" are probably a
foul of a number of regulations and the like, I can easily recall many
times I spent in college where a quick 50 spot would have held me over
for a few more weeks until my student loan overage or my first bar
tending check made its way into my account.
So sure I see bad officiating as a problem, but I think more time needs
to be devoted to a more "equitable" solution to the BCS mess and
something needs to be done to enable student athletes to make a bit of
money, or borrow $100 from a friend (or acquaintance, or booster, or
whatever) without the entirety of the NCAA coming down on them for
wanting a few bucks to get by. I won't delve further into these topics
here as they are worthy of columns all their own, but nevertheless I
think officiating and replay are small problems (if problems at all)
and I really would rather not see them addressed by any conference save
for training their officials to be competent stewards of the game on
the field.
And in the end, that's all there is to it.
To me, football is football, bad calls and all. And the debate about
whether the ball crossed the plane or didn't is a call for a man with
an ice cold Budweiser and a bratwurst, not some sterile conference
stooge sitting in a press box with a TiVo. |
