SEC Instant Replay

Ok, so the SEC has resoloved to use instant replay on an experimental basis next season.

Can I be the first in line to say "Phooey"!? This is just so stupid. I like college football. I really like college football. But it is, after all, just football. It's a game. I scream and cuss and get mad and do and say stupid things before/during/after games because I care more than I should, but in the calm and reasoned months of the year (and March is certainly a reasonable month, you know, with Lent and all, keeping it all in perspective, but I digress), I recognize that it's a game and it's supposed to be fun. This is not surgery. So WHAT if the refs get a call wrong? The law of averages would dictate that, unless you're Alabama, for every game lost because of a refereeing decision, there is a game won because of a refereeing decision. And again, unless you're Alabama, for every call that goes against you, in the great cosmos of karma and goodwill, there will be one that goes for you at some point. NOTE: (For any obnoxious Bama fans who accidentally stumble by this board on their way to the website for the John Boy and Billy program (or the Nascar website), please note that almost all reasonable and intelligent fans of schools other than Alabama believe that Alabama gets the benefit of all refereeing decisions and that this is evidence of an anti- Ole Miss/ MississippiState/ LSU/ Auburn / Arkansas/ Tennessee/ Georgia/Kentucky/Florida/Vandy/South Carolina conspiracy in the SEC (note that SEC's offices are located, I think, in ALABAMA...Coincidence? I think not....))

Can't we just let bad refs be a part of the game, like weather or crowd noise? Are we going to make it so the wind blows in exactly the same direction at exactly the same pace for exactly the same amount of time for each of the teams in every game? Gotta be fair, right? (terrible example, I know, but when we break out into our individual discussion groups we can each come up with better ones. Post better examples in the comments section. If you don't know how to use the comments section, then mumble it under your breath).

And what about the length of the game? Between television time outs, real time outs, commercials after punts, etc. many games now last nearly four hours. With instant replay, the games will now be even longer.

Perhaps most importantly, if you're one of the people who actually attend games, there will now be 5 - 10 minute delays where NOTHING happens. Since, according to that article, "[w] do know that coaches will have no ability to request a review," MSU athletic director Larry Templeton said, "[t]hat comes from upstairs", during those times, after some shadowy character will push the button or make the call and rectify some wrong done to Alabama (c'mom, you don't really think Ole Miss is gonna benefit from this rule, do you?), as a fan who attends the game (and, you know, provides the "atmosphere" and "spectacle" all those good folks in the comfort of their barcalounger tune in for), you get to stand around and do, essentially, NOTHING, while the home viewer can go for a snack, or check his stocks or, better yet, watch other football games (assuming that the other games are not in an interminable television replay mode). As a fan attending the game, here's yet another inconvenience (parking, commercial breaks and even radio time outs. There ARE radio timeouts! Time outs for RADIO! My indignation knows no bounds!) added to your game experience for the benefit of those slobs at home who love the game so much they can't actually be bothered to, you know, get up off their lazy $%#$% to actually ATTEND the game.

An esteemed colleague of mine emailed me the following this morning, and I think we would all be wise to write this down and revisit it come the first of December:

The questions to be asked at the end of the season are:

1. How many favorable calls for AL/TN were overruled by review?

2. How many favorable calls for AL/TN's opponents were overruled by review?

3. How many favorable calls for AL/TN were reviewed at all?

Indeed.



P.S. My sincere apologies for quoting Larry Templeton in a manner in which he was not being ridiculed.