Mea culpa for SEC officials ... again

Let me see if I got this right.

The most powerful, cash-rich conference in the nation can't find a quality group of football officials. Here I thought the Big East officials were worthless and incompetent.

There were the unnecessary unsportsmanlike penalties in the LSU-Georgia game on Oct. 3. SEC officials were nice enough to apologize to Georgia and admit the officiating mistake.

Then this past weekend it appears SEC officials were screwing up calls in favor of the higher-ranked teams in Gainesville and Tuscaloosa.

In the Florida-Arkansas game, the officiating crew had at least two horrendous calls go against the Razorbacks on the Gators' game-winning drive. They also had one missed called on the Gators.

The first bad call was a phantom interference call that you can watch here.



The second pitiful penalty was a personal foul on a defensive lineman protecting himself from a block. See what you think.



Then there was the missed offensive pass interference on UF receiver Riley Cooper that could have easily kept the Gators from getting into field-goal range. Again, you be the judge.



Now South Carolina's Steve Spurrier is accusing the Crimson Tide of its own form of trickery by using tape to spot field goals and extra points in last weekend's 20-6 Alabama win.

I'm not unrealistic. Officials are going to miss calls. Maybe they don't see something. But there is no excuse when officials call something that didn't happen. I can't overlook that and neither should the SEC. The statement released by conference officials is actually disturbing.

"After video review, there was no evidence on the video to support the personal foul penalty called on Arkansas midway through the fourth quarter. The other calls that were referenced are judgment calls and a review of those calls have been communicated to Arkansas."

I would expect something stronger. But Florida and Alabama are carrying the SEC this year (and last year), so no one (not even game officials) are going to rock ratings gold of these two.

(Hat tip: The Wiz of Odds for finding all of the video proof)