‘Some of the worst officials in America are those in the announce booth’: SEC commissioner blasts media over referee complaints
· Yahoo Sports
SEC officiating has come under fire this season, especially after a controversial replay review in the Texas-Missouri game last weekend. But commissioner Greg Sankey isn’t taking the criticism lying down.
Sankey defended the conference’s replay process on Monday and took aim at broadcasters who have questioned SEC officials on the air. He said that “some of the worst officials in America are those in the announce booth,” calling one announcer’s criticism “just flat wrong.”
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SEC Replay Controversy
On Saturday, Texas rallied for a 34-20 win at Missouri thanks in part to a baffling call late in the third quarter. Arch Manning was hit as he threw, and the ball sailed forward and hit the turf, but officials ruled it a fumble and Texas recovered for a first down.
The call was upheld after a replay review, and the Longhorns scored a game-tying touchdown three plays later. The SEC later explained the ruling, but that didn’t stop the criticism.
The SEC has also drawn scrutiny for how it handles replay reviews. The ACC, Big 12, and Big Ten all offer some form of live look-in with audio during replay reviews, but the SEC does not.
‘Just flat wrong’
Appearing on The Paul Finebaum Show on Monday, Sankey explained that the SEC plays as many as seven games at once on Saturdays, making audio access more difficult. He then turned his attention to the people criticizing his officials.
“Now I’ll say this: I am highly disappointed in announcers and their criticism. And they’re wrong. Some of the worst officials in America are those in the announce booth,” Sankey said, via On3. “We have officiating experts, who I turned on a game on Saturday, who was just flat wrong. 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.”
Sankey took particular issue with an announcer who weighed in on the Texas-Missouri call during a later game. That broadcast featured Matt Schumacker and Aaron Murray on the call for Florida-Oklahoma.
“We’re going to be wrong. We’ve made announcements when we own it. We’re going to have debates about judgment calls,” Sankey said. “But somebody on a Saturday night who’s announcing a game between Oklahoma and Florida going back to something that happened at noon, that he’s never called and asked a question about and being critical is unacceptable in my mind.”
“So we’ll take the responsibility, we’ll take the heat, we’ll work to continually improve, we’ll work on how do we provide more transparency and access to a replay system,” he said.
The comments came during the same appearance in which Sankey fired back at Big Ten coaches over claims of SEC bias. Clearly, the SEC commissioner wasn’t in the mood to take criticism on Monday.
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