Thursday, September 28, 2006

Instant Replay, Conference Affilliation, and BCS Thoughts


In the last two weeks we have had game changing mistakes made by the instant replay officials. The first (and probably the most seen screw up in instant replay history) occured two weeks ago when Oklahoma played Oregon. Not only did the replay official miss that the ball was touched early by an Oregon player but the entire officiating crew seemed to miss that Oregon did not actually recover the ball in the first place. However, instant replay rules do not allow you to review ball possession after the fact. In other words if the ball is ruled down the replay official cannot review posession. Last week Houston played Oklahoma State and a similar mistake was made. Oklahoma State had caused a fumble and the replay booth was given the task of seeing if it indeed was a fumble. Instead the replay booth ruled the runners progress was stopped and therefore the play should have been whistled dead. In the end Houston kept the ball and scored a touchdown en route to their close win over Oklahoma State. Now the question I ask is do you as fans feel like the instant replay system in college football is working? I know that I am a proponent of the system because I feel like more often than not they make the right call. I just wish they would go to the same system that the NFL uses for replay. Just wondering if everyone saw the Oregon game and what they thought when they saw that.

Today I read an article in the Fresno Bee about the rivalry between the MWC and the WAC. I have to say I don't feel this so called rivalry between the two conferences, but I may be missing something. When Colorado State comes to town I don't feel the city gets up for it like we do when we play Hawaii. I realize we used to be in the same conference with many of those same teams in the MWC but does everyone else feel like these teams are true rivals to us at all? We used to play great games with BYU, San Diego State, and even Utah. However, if we scheduled any of these teams on our non-conference schedule I am willing to bet that the city of Fresno would not look at it as a great rivalry game, but instead a trap game. I have to say that althought the WAC has some terrible teams I prefer the WAC over the MWC without a doubt. In Nevada, Hawaii, and Boise State we have three other teams that can go out and play with great teams. Hawaii gave Alabama all they could handle to open the season and I am willing to bet they would actually beat Alabama now. Boise State is on the national scene as they are currently ranked #22 and have a chance to run the table. They probably would need TCU to lose since they started ranked higher and they seem to have the nation's support to make a BCS run. I am not saying it is impossible for two non-BCS teams to make it, but it is hard to say the least. The point I am making is between these two confences the WAC is jst as competitive. it may be a top heavy conference, but in a few years things will change as they always do.

BCS wise Boise State has a chance to make a BCS game as I stated earlier. Yes, this is a position Fresno State desires to be in yearly. So here is the question I pose to everyone. Is it better to run a schedule like Boise has this season with it's toughest opponents being @Utah, and Fresno State at home? Or is it better to schedule as Fresno State does, with LSU and Oregon on the non-conference schedule? The Bulldogs put their selves in a tough position and would make a BCS game if they could run the table, but with their schedule it would be a stretch to do so. Instead the Dogs may go 7-5 this season. What would you as fans think if we had a schedule like Utah did two years ago when they made their BCS game, with their big game opponent being an unranked North Carolina team at home? I have to say that if that is the way to make the big money in a nationally televised BCS game, then why not take advantage of it? I have a feeling that if we played Oregon State and Wyoming instead of Washington and Oregon, we would be 3-0 easily. Well if anyone cares to chime in on any of these topics, please do. I wrte this blog to find out what you have to say and to let you know what I think as well.

Note - The picture above is our victory at K-State. Remember the good times, they wll be back again soon.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Replay stays, it's not going away, it will be a bit and then the bugs will be worked out and we will forget what it was like without it. Probably, it will become more like the NFL's system.

The question is, should conference's be allowed to dictate the officials in out-of-conference play? I think that the idea of the away team getting the advantage of their own conference's officials is a great idea.

And I am all for FS lightening up on the schedule now that we have established ourselves. Once we make a BCS game, we can schedule some more big time opponents and go after the National Championship. One step at a time.

nsc said...

bulldog1 you may be right, but they do get 14 million for playing in that game. I realize the conference divides it so maybe you should hope that if boise beats us they go undefeated. With TCU losing tonight they now move up as the mid major with the best chance to make it happen.

Anonymous said...

I'm glad Oregan(pac-10 crew) finally got caught cheeting at home. We were hosed two years in a row by those officals. Replay can only get better,I just hate to see an offense get into rythem only to have replay shut it down to review. I have seen this in two games this year already. Offense team was moving the ball, review comes and after 3 min break the offense went three and out.

Anonymous said...

The problem with instant replay is there are too many restrictions on what you can and cannot review. When a play is up for review the referee in the booth should be allowed to review the whole play from start to finish regardless if the whisle blows or not and the official in the booth should have the final say.

Boise gets the kind of respect you give to a lab whose just done a trick for you. Fresno State gets the kind of respect you give to a growling pit, you back up slowly and run the other way. That is the difference in scheduling and i prefer Fresno State's way of scheduling.