Oh, Steve Shaw, how I’d like to believe you when you say things like this.
Shaw said he wants to continue to incrementally make SEC officiating more transparent, within reason. He is considering providing a midseason review on the SEC Digital Network of some correct and incorrect calls from that season.
“That’s kind of the next phase,” Shaw said. “I’d like to do that. As you know, these plays are so important to the fans that sometimes a midseason point might not be the right time. But we do that for the officials every week. We have the material.”
Okay, fine. So where do you go from there?
Shaw believes critiquing calls publicly would require discussing mistakes for credibility purposes.
“We do have incorrect calls,” he said. “I can assure you from the conference perspective those are not ignored or washed over. They’re dealt with harshly and deeply at times. But how do we do this with the fans?”
Hey, I’m a fan. So let me give you a suggestion for a starting point. It’s right here: “Four SEC officials from 2011 — three active and one working instant replay — won’t return due to performance or retirement, Shaw said.” Tell us who you dismissed for performance and why. It’s not like you’re burning any bridges. Making the reasons for the terminations transparent serves to increase fan confidence in the SEC office and lets other officials know where the limits on shoddy work are.
Think about it.
Get The Picture 
SEC officiating – the blind leading the blind since 1932
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I’m going to sorely miss my pre-game freak out when Penn Wagers struts out onto the field. (kidding: I’m sure he’ll be back)
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He’s back – he did our spring game
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I like Steve Shaw, and I like this approach. There are vlid reasons why they cannot discuss certain terminations, for the same reason private businesses cannot. I am satisfied if they really do set higher standards and adhere to them. It will take some time to move the SEC officials from the bottom to the middle of the pack nationally but now is the time to start….since we didn’t start 15 years ago. I will believe they are serious when they fire the stooge that called the “non-celebration” penalty on AJ against LSU and cost us that game.
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Maybe this is naive but I actually believe Shaw is trying to improve officiating in the SEC. Now if I could just get past the belief that Slive is using officiating to fix key games…..
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I’m not current on HR legalities, but a public airing of why someone was dismissed seems to entail some legal risks.
And frankly, it seems a BS way to treat people. I’m no fan of some officials, but just noting their absence will be enough for me.
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Incremental and transparency. There’s two words that go together. I assume this man graduated from Auburn.
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I fully expect the only publicly scrutinized questionable calls to be in games that do not have a bearing on whether or not the SEC Champion is chosen for the National Championship game (or whatever playoff scenario the Delaney forces everyone to accept). The higher ranked teams have been given favorable calls for a bunch of years now.
Seems like Florida got a few that the SEC should be downright embarrassed about a few years ago.
I look for a really big deal to be made about a call or two in the Tennessee/Kentucky clash of titans this year–maybe one in the Egg Bowl too. This will prove to the world that SEC officials are truly impartial.
…and if I ever get to meet Penn Wagers, I am going to stink-palm the hell out of him.
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Mallrats!
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You were already a 10 in my book Senator, but you just went to 12 with the Mallrats recognition. Major props.
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Curious but satisfying that one of the officials being released is an “instant replay” official. A few times I sat mystified in front of the TV as instant replays showed a blatant mistaken call on the goal line.. The announcer would assure us that “every play is reviewed by an SEC official in the play booth”, but nothing would happen. Was the guy asleep, eating, or maybe gone to take a whizz? It becomes pretty obvious (sometimes) that the replay official has selective vision. I think the SEC should outsource officiating to the ACC officials. Their league may suck, but their officiating is more professional than the SECs by a long shot.
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Ron Cherry?
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lol. That’s exactly who I thought of. I saw Ron Cherry call pass interference when there wasn’t anyone for 10 yards once. Seriously. 10 yards.
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There are a lot of ways to fix officials. Rattling cages would be a good start, but that involves pissing off people that the Birmingham crowd will still have to see at parties and we know they won’t do it.
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How does a guy get fired for instant replay calls? Like, he’s biased? He blatantly favored another team? The “Why?” of that would call for an investigation as far as I’m concerned.
I think you can see an advantage to an official who can lay money on it and a few that have admitted publicly that they did so. I used to attend Pro BBall games free with a guy who got free tickets for him and his buddies by lining up the local University coeds for the visiting refs.
They have a price for everything, it’s just how much and who and how to keep it quiet. I’m with Mac. The ref was just waiting to make that call on AJ.
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+1. The whole crew was. If you recall there was an absolute furor on all the national sports programs about that call. Tim Brando even said: “What’s wrong with SEC refs?”
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I’ll never forget the look on the asshole’s face when AJ scored. He was pissed off about the score and couldn’t hide it. He threw that flag out of pure biased spite, imho.
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You would too if you had the farm bet on the game and realized you were going to have to be the horseshoe that LSU would pull from their butt again.
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I hated the call against A,J. The 2010 AU game was worse, IMO, because the refs lost control of the game. Luckily no kids got hurt but when you see Ben Jones lose control and body slam a man things have gotten out of hand. I think an official’s first duty is to protect the players and in that game they failed. God knows those guys ain’t choirboys and when somebody cheap shots a teammate and nothing is called they retaliate, then the other guys want payback and they retaliate and then you lose control and put the kids in danger. A rivalry game needs to be called tight early to keep emotions under control.
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That said, when the refs take no action and nobody on the victim’s team retaliates it opens up the door to one-sided dirty play and even worse chance for injury to that team’s members–particularly the QB. God Bless Ben Jones!!!
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Amen, but college football is a game played by kids. most of whom will never get a paycheck from football. It’s not worth an injury that could be prevented by adults doing their freaking job!
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