For most neutral fans and viewers watching Saturday’s game between the Texas Longhorns and Missouri Tigers, there was a clear and obvious issue with the officiating.
A number of calls were either seemingly mishandled, called incorrectly or slanted in favor of one side or the other. More often than not, in the Longhorns’ direction. To the point where the announcers covering the game, Joe Tessitore and Jesse Palmer, commented on it.
Palmer at one point during the game was very forthcoming, saying he’d be furious if he were a Missouri fan.
“I’m just going to say this. No skin in the game, [but] if you’re a Missouri fan, if you’re Eli Drinkwitz, you are livid,” he said. “Because it does feel like a lot of these calls are going against Missouri today.”
He said it again later, in the fourth quarter. The refs missed a key penalty when a Texas defender forcibly knocked over a Missouri wide receiver away from the play, which should have resulted in an unnecessary roughness penalty and a free first down and 15-yards. Instead, no call, and Palmer was once again flabbergasted.
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“I can’t believe I’m saying this … but I think on that last play, this reffing crew missed another call that negatively impacts Missouri,” he said.
One of the most obvious and controversial calls was the “fumble” from Texas QB Arch Manning on a third down play in the third quarter. Manning’s arm appeared to be coming forward as the ball left his hand, which would have made the play an incomplete pass and forced a tough decision from Texas coach Steve Sarkisian. Instead, it was ruled a fumble, with a clear recovery from the Longhorns, resulting in a pick-up of 14-yards and a first down. They went down and scored immediately afterward, helping jumpstart the win.
That call drew immense criticism from all corners of the college football world, especially for how it impacted the outcome of the game. Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz was, as Palmer suggested, livid: “If I say what I want to say, I’m going to get fined until I don’t have any retirement, and I’m not going to do that. I’m not going to blame the officials. That would be disrespectful to Coach Sarkisian and his team,” he said.
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Well, SEC commissioner Greg Sankey clearly heard those complaints and instead of addressing the referees and their calls, he chose to … attack the announcers.
“I am highly disappointed in announcers and their criticism, and they’re wrong,” he said on “The Paul Finebaum Show.” “Some of the worst officials in America are those in the announcers booth.
“We have officiating experts, who I turned on a game on Saturday, who was just flat wrong,” he continued. “And what that creates is this narrative that we’ve done something wrong and that is unacceptable to me, and we have to address that.”
Remember, the officiating in that game was so controversial that the Missouri athletic director, Laird Veatch, published an open letter asking for more transparency from the SEC. Sankey choosing to go after the announcers instead though, is par for the course.
Officiating expert and NBC rules analyst Terry McAuley saw Sankey’s interview, and took the time to respond to it in a post on X.
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“Football announcers in both college and the NFL in today’s world are far more knowledgeable about rules than they have ever been in my lifetime. They are also more supportive of officiating than they have ever been. The three announcing crews I regularly work with are incredibly strong on their knowledge of the rules, which (fortunately?) minimizes the times I need to speak.
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Sometimes the rules get very complex and announcers do get it wrong, but sometimes the officials, including Replay, get it wrong and announcers are obliged to point it out, especially when rules are involved rather than real-time judgments. Judgments are always open for debate, but as I said, today’s announcers are very deferential to judgments by officials and almost always extremely fair. If Commissioner Sankey and the SEC believe announcers are treating SEC officiating unfairly, I would suggest reaching out and working with their broadcast partners on rules/officiating would be far more effective than a broadside attack such as this.”
That’s the actual answer. Announcers rarely attack the officiating, unless they believe it’s so egregious that it requires addressing. That’s what happened here.
It doesn’t mean there’s some deep-seated conspiracy on the part of the SEC to protect Texas; these types of missed calls generally even out over time and the crews could have just made a series of mistakes through sheer happenstance. Some Longhorns fans were also up in arms about calls that they believe should have gone against Missouri. But acting like the announcers are the problem, not the refs, is gaslighting.
Sankey does a lot of that, normally when campaigning to get all 16 SEC teams in the 12-team College Football Playoff, but it doesn’t make it any less acceptable when it’s directed not just at the announcers, but everyone watching too.
