The Southeastern Conference took action yesterday against one of its refereeing crews for making some highly questionable calls in 2 very close football games. Commissioner Mike Slive suspended the crew headed by Referee Mark Curles and 6 others for the next 3 games and have placed there potential for bowl work in serious doubt.
The reasons for the suspension, for those who don't follow college football, they called the University of Georgia's AJ Green for an excessive celebration penalty after he caught a go-ahead touchdown pass late in Georgia's game vs. LSU. The subsequent 15-yard penalty, short kickoff and return enabled LSU to drive down the field and score at the end of the game and get the win.
The Georgia play in question, from raw video on YouTube:
The crew more recently had a couple of "Very" questionable calls in the Florida/Arkansas game. A pass interference penalty in the end zone that looked an awful lot like a good play. They called a phantom personal foul on Arkansas DT Malcom Shepard for running into a Florida player in the middle of the field. Nothing dirty. They collided trying to get from point A to point B. All in all, too much controversy.
Now the required reading from the pundits:
The Orlando Sentinel HERE
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is HERE
NWAOnline (Arkansas) is RIGHT HERE
The Huntsville Times/Al.com report is RIGHT HERE
We will refrain from getting deep into this topic. It's hard to "Take Sides" since most SEC Football fans are conspiracy theorists and think that either the league or CBS has arranged things so the biggest "Marquee" teams win each week. They all think that one or both of them are out to make their team lose. We all know that it isn't true, but trust me, up until recently, I lived my entire life down there, they do believe it...and they aren't afraid to say so.
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