How one controversial call in Georgia-Texas sparked widespread fallout: Fines, fury and now maybe reform

He’s out there somewhere, the official who threw the flag for defensive pass interference in the Georgia-Texas game. He’s out there basically waiting to be outed. Not by choice, of course, and that’s sad.

What that official unknowingly did was set off a series of events that may linger the remainder of this season — and beyond. Texas fans, mostly from the student section, during the third quarter of Georgia’s 30-15 win were so upset at a pass interference call against defensive back Jahdae Barron during an interception and return inside Georgia’ 10-yard-line that they threw debris on the field, mostly water bottles that were at least somewhat full to fly the full distance from the stands and over the end zone and onto the field. The game was delayed 6 ½ minutes that seemed much longer. That the official eventually reversed his call, essentially picking up the flag and getting the call “right,” is less important than what came after.

The SEC fined Texas $250,000 for the littering. The conference also said the school must attempt to identify those who threw the debris. It threatened Texas, in stern language, that its alcohol sales could be halted if it doesn’t comply.

And today, the first emotion I felt was sympathy for that official because of what’s inevitably coming. The identity of the official who made the call is fairly easy to get for an industrious fan. The crew’s names are listed in the official game book distributed to the media.

They should be. They’re accountable. But that’s less of a point than what could have at least calmed the noise surrounding the call: centralized officiating. That is, a central group, company, or LLC of officials who answer to one authority instead of nine different FBS conferences.

Because those officials work for their leagues instead of a central authority, even when they screw up, or are perceived to have screwed up, the conference’s name is dragged through the mud. Before the Pac-12 broke up, its officials were famously slammed because of a series of screw-ups over the years.

Former Pac-12 general counsel Woody Dixon famously called in from a boat and overruled a targeting call in the 2018 Washington State-USC game.

“We all felt the fallout,” a former Pac-12 official told CBS Sports.

Pac-12 replay official Gordon Reise was basically run out of the game for botching an onside kick review in an Oklahoma-Oregon game in 2006. You can imagine the fallout from a Pac-12 official having a hand in a Big 12 power’s loss.

ACC officials were the latest to be scrutinized on a national level following the Sept. 27 Virginia Tech-Miami game when a Hokies Hail Mary touchdown at the gun was overturned.

The SEC, with a reputation for having the game’s best officials, is in that spotlight now.

CBS Sports was told by sources close to the profession that Saturday’s official at Texas was in position to make the call. In other words, an official from across the field didn’t throw a flag. In the parlance of the profession, the defensive pass interference was that official’s call.

The biggest sin Saturday was the officiating crew seemingly waiting to look up at the scoreboard before reversing the call. They certainly waited too long. That allowed for the unrest and confusion to fester. It would be fair to assume that crew will be called on the carpet by the SEC this week.

The result also did not materially impact the game. Georgia was leading at the time and eventually won the game.

But in the moment, the outrage shifted from Texas coach Steve Sarkisian to Georgia’s Kirby Smart, who did not hold back.

“They tried to rob us with calls in this place,” Smart said to ESPN after the game.

Georgia AD Josh Brooks then posted a lengthy missive.

It is my privilege and duty to serve the University of Georgia and part of that responsibility is to stand up for my coaches, student-athletes, staff, and all of Dawg Nation. 

As proud as I am of the resolve our team had, I am also equally disappointed and frustrated in some of the circumstances of our game Saturday night. 

I don’t find it productive to publicly demean or embarrass officials or the conference office via social media. That would be no better than the physical action of throwing objects on the field. 

However, I will challenge the conference office on what happened and how it happened in the manner it did. Thankfully this did not cost our young men a hard fought win. 

Disagreeing with a singular call is natural and will happen several times in every football game. I can accept that. What I cannot accept is the manner in which this specific call was reversed. The official claimed he erred in the call. My question is when did he realize the error? 

If it was before the delay that occurred due to fans throwing objects on the field, what stopped him before the head official made the announcement and spotted the ball? 

I have faith we, as a conference, will learn from this and get better. We must, because in the SEC it just means more.

That tweet lit a flame that prompted 505 responses as of Monday morning, mostly from Georgia loyalists. But recriminations were there too, because there always are.

You can count on the issue to program talk shows from Gainesville to College Station.

And here we are early in the week talking about a call that the crew essentially got right but took too long to get there. Two superpowers and the SEC are still involved because that’s what America does these days. Conspiracy Theories R Us.

One former official weighed in on the pregnant pause after the call.

“When you do that, everybody, including Kirby, feels like this is a sinister move,” that person said. “There is no conspiracy theory, but in the end, it does leave it up to the imagination of who really influenced that decision.”

The business phone of at least one official in Saturday’s crew was “flooded” Monday, according to sources.

We told you this could get ugly.

Centralized replay is long overdue. The infrastructure and resources are there to make officials employees of a national officiating consortium, if you want to go that far. Even if they aren’t employees, answering to a central authority rids them of a conference label.

Yeah, yeah, big government is bad. I get it. But these are men and women who are contract workers who view officiating as a vocation. They don’t necessarily get paid much, certainly not enough to make it worth what they go through.

“Sparky,” one former Power Five official told CBS Sports Monday, describing a friend’s advice, “you only go into that jungle for so long before you get your ass shot off.”

One veteran official described the process of what went on Saturday night:

• There is no review on pass interference, so this was a judgment call. 
• The official who made the call is allowed to change his mind after the play, but he essentially cannot be overridden by the referee.
• Another official(s) in the crew can weigh in as to what he saw on the play to the official who made the call. 
• But only the “calling” official can change his mind. 
• He did.

“At the end of the day, they did get the call right,” that veteran official said. “The process did not look good.”

They want to get it right. Always. But when they don’t, the downside is way too deep. Veteran official J.C. Louderback was harassed for years after being the referee in the Fifth Down game in 1990. Terry Porter is still author of perhaps the most controversial call of the BCS era in the 2003 BCS National Championship Game.

The pieces are in place for centralized officiating. Current NCAA secretary-rules editor and former SEC official Steve Shaw heads College Football Officiating, a national clearinghouse meant to maintain consistency in the profession. The CFO is an LLC overseen by the College Football Playoff Board of Managers (FBS commissioners) and two FCS commissioners.

For the first time this season, collaborative (neutral) replay will officially be used in the 11 College Football Playoff games. It will be located in Pittsburgh. Eight of the nine FBS leagues already use collaborative replay to review plays during the regular season. Before that, onsite replay officials worked the games. But they worked for those individual leagues.

Part of the issue is part of college sports’ biggest issue, that lack of centralized authority. This is another symptom of everyone being out for themselves. Every conference wants to scout, teach and develop its own officials. FBS leagues compete with each other to sign those officials coming up through the ranks.

You might have noticed this issue is a reflection that some conferences have more money than others. And they want to keep it that way.

Centralized officiating would ensure that talent, resources, training, etc., are spread out evenly. There is no downside. The game gets better. For now, we’ve got a mess.

We can argue whether the SEC came down too harshly in this case, but the fact that the punishment was so swift and significant means it’s terrified of copycats. But there will be fans who test the SEC and other conference by throwing debris at the next (perceived) egregious call.

Heck, maybe it becomes a national trend. What then? And you thought field storming was bad.

“Next week you’re the student section and you don’t like a call, ‘Let’s litter the field and give them 10 minutes to think about it and watch it on the Jumbotron and see if they can get them to change it,’” one former official theorized.

And that would be sad. For now, we have an officiating blunder that was corrected but still lingers. And the SEC remains watching as a sort of Big Brother, ready to bring the hammer, which could cause further issues. Texas is a valued new partner, which also happens to wield a bit of influence itself.

That would lead to a whole new meaning of “Texas, Fight!“