The problem of bad calls....

Last friday night during the UL vs UConn football game we witnessed one of, if not the, most egregious bad calls in collegiate football history. You could say that the Oklahoma vs Oregon on-side kick call was worse, but in that situation, there were a lot of bodies flying around. In the case of the UL vs UConn game, what we saw was in that non-call of a clearly fair catch signal with the back judge standing not more than 10 yards away, looking dead on AT the UConn's return man Taylor, with NO other players around him, was nothing less than hideously stupid. And led to not only all of the opposing coverage players stop dead in their tracks, but also UConn's coverage team as well, it led to a touchdown, in a game where UL eventually lost by 7 points.

But the problem we saw friday night past, I believe, is FAR more large than this one bad call and how it did or did not effect the outcome of the game between UL and UConn. The problem of dozens of blown calls over the past few years, is symptomatic of the fact that in all by one sport, (including professional sports), all of the officials are PART-TIME employees of their craft. The ONLY sport that actually pays and retains officials as Full Time Employees, (FTE's), is Major League Baseball. And THAT for me is the problem.

How can we expect some sap official who spends half the year working at Home Depot in the hardware section, to be good at the craft of officiating a sport where every call and action is critical and vital to the outcome of a game, with literally millions of dollars riding on it? And while it is easy to see the millions in pro sports like the NBA and NFL, let's face it, even in college, post-season bowl games, sponsors and boosters are BIG money issues.

If officials spend half of the year wandering around working other jobs, and NOT spending the off season honing their craft by learning the rule book inside and out, as well as watching video and attending learning sessions to make themselves better, we will continue to see this type of extremely poor officiating continue, and even get worse as things move forward.

While pro sports have their own ways and worries of trying to deal with this problem, in the case of collegiate sports, the NCAA MUST step in soon and make this a top priority issue. And not just for the example of horrible play calls or non-calls like illustrated by the UL-UConn game. But also for the complete integrity of the game as a whole. We have already seen this past summer an NBA official admit to gambling on games, even those that he officiated. Do we REALLY believe that part-time officials at the collegiate level, guys who do NOT make this their living, and get paid paltry sums of money, are immune to the temptations of such outside influences as gambling?

The conferences themselves are also to blame here, for they, as decided by the NCAA, employ and maintain their conference affiliated officiating staffs. But that makes it even worse. You would think that the conferences, which bring in HUGE amounts of TV money would not want the incredible media beat down that is 100% justified and inevitable when horrible calls or non-calls are made that impact the outcomes of their own conference games.

Instead of issuing the required, "Mea culpa!" to the impacted schools of their own conference, what they SHOULD be doing is looking to greatly improve the status and skills of all of their officiating in every sport and level. And IMHO, that all starts with making officials full-time employees, so that they can be held much more accountable for their actions.

Well, that's my take on it anyway.......