Sunday, September 07, 2008

Sunday 09/07 (Very) Quickie

I hate the excessive celebration penalty in college football -- have hated it for as long as the NCAA and officials have wanted to crack down on it. And it is inconsistently applied -- this year, worse than ever.

Yes, Washington QB Jake Locker should have known better than to throw the ball into the air. Period. Because of that, he put himself and his team in a position to have the new rule applied to them. (The UW kicker also should have made it.)

That said, the refs should have applied a modicum of judgement here and let it go. With virtually no time left. On a game-tying TD. In a game with massive BCS implications. On the home field of the team that scored. I mean, this couldn't have been worse.

I'm not saying that Washington would have won in overtime -- BYU's offense seems MADE for overtime. But Washington had earned the chance to have the game go there -- the refs screwed up.

This new emphasis on clamping down on celebrations was bound to cause a massive problem sooner or later. I guess I'm just glad it's sooner -- hopefully, the scrutiny today and this week will pressure refs to swallow their whistles in all but the most egregious instances.

That may be the only good thing to come out of this.

Meanwhile: Yes, I'm dropping Ohio State on my Top 25 ballot... Wow, how high does East Carolina deserve to be after putting together the best pair of wins in the country this season... Good to see some things don't change: Notre Dame still isn't very good... Again: There is no way Tim Tebow wins the Heisman this season... Your new Heisman leader: Knowshon Moreno...

More later, but I'm traveling today...

-- D.S.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I just feel leagues have to let kids do what they want. For God sakes, they are in college and want to have fun. Same with the NFL...don't you think there are some fans that go to see T.O and Chad because of their antics away from home? Football is all about entertainment and somehow they want to take it away from us.

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