FanPost

Leach Rips Officials

Update [2007-11-11 12:14:27 by Seth C]: I'm looking at what I believe to be the official NCAA rulebook (go ahead and download it to your computer, it will be much quicker to view) and although I haven't quite had the time to pour through all of it, here's something interesting I found:

RULE 4.

SECTION 2. Out of Bounds Player Out of Bounds

ARTICLE 1. a. A player or an airborne player is out of bounds when any part of his person touches anything, other than another player or game official, on or outside a boundary line (A.R. 4-2-1-I and II).

I tried finding the rule mentioned on the broadcast, the "toe-heel" rule, but, but haven't been able to find anything that references that rule other than the rule mentioned above and this rule seems pretty clear.

[editor's note, by Seth C] I thought this might create some discussion this morning.

http://sports.yahoo.com/ncaaf/news;_ylt=AvHcUJXm97ci7.CPJjD1uqs5nYcB?slug=ap-texastech-leachrant& ;prov=ap&type=lgns
Mike Leach has finally said something about officiating in the Big 12.  Even the commentators saw Shipley's heel come down out of bounds.  That holding call was technically correct, but that's usually a no-call.  I'm not so sure this game was as bad as Leach is making it out to be, and definitely not as bad as last year's, but it has been pretty apparent that the crews favor Texas in this matchup for the last few years.

I do remember one thing that had me incensed last year:

Let's rewind to the Tech-UT game...there was an overruled Filani catch, a non-call on McCoy with an illegal pass, two bad spots on Tech completions, and numerous others.  Mike Leach sent a tape to the Big 12.  The Big 12's official response to disputed calls in the game was "any comments made toward the respective schools is not available for public release."

Now, what happened after the Missouri-Iowa State game?  Well, that Monday immediately after the game, "The league's supervisor of officials admitted Monday that the crew working Saturday's Missouri-Iowa State game made a wrong call..."

They contradicted their own "policy" by even commenting on the game.  Leach may get fined, but at least it will get some response from the conference.

[editor's note, by Seth C] I've added the following from Don Williams' blog, Raider Rants, about the officials. A much different perspective:

Leach said the way the Big 12 goes about officiating needs a major overhaul, including not allowing officials to call games of their hometown teams and bringing in crew members from faraway places to guard against perceived biases.

It was all very measured, very controlled – and even a little bit funny at one point. Leach spent a couple of minutes saying he was going to go off on officiating. At that point, he amused the pack when someone prompted him with a question.

"Are you gonna misbehave?’’ Leach asked in kidding fashion. "You don’t want to be dismissed, do ya? This is pretty good. This is as good as it gets. I mean, hang on to your seat here.’’

Leach detailed his grievances, glancing often at his play sheet, and retreated to the locker room, but that wasn’t the end of it. After one or two of his players had spoken, out came Leach again to rail against the video review system, calling it "a sham.’’

"That either needs to be done away with, or it needs to be done correctly,’’ Leach said. "It’s a brother-in-law process that makes the officials look like they get the calls right and everybody’s doing a great job of working. I’m tired of the way that we pretend we’re actually reviewing plays closely. I’m tired of the way that as soon as somebody’s about to challenge a play that they immediately review it, so that the officials can look correct like they’re cleaning their own house.’’

There were five plays reviewed in Saturday's game.

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