play was not reviewable
Oklahoma football fans certainly haven’t forgotten the game against Oregon early this season. In the fourth quarter, officials on field blew a call on a fumble and gave possession of the ball to the Oregon Ducks, rather than the Sooners, which actually recovered the football. This led to an Oregon scoring drive which handed the Sooners their first loss of the season. There is now an instant-replay rule in top-tier college football, but, unlike the NFL, only a dedicated replay official is able to watch tape, and these officials have their hands tied in terms of what they can do. They can only overturn a call from the field if they have “indisputable video evidence,” that is, the call on field stands unless the official has access to an angle that shows the call was wrong.
I sure do feel bad for Gordon Riese, the Pac-10 official who served as the replay ref for that game. In the month after the game, he told the press that he couldn’t sleep or eat and had received death threats. (Boo, Sooner fans.) Now, in an article dated November 23 – over two months since the game – he tells The Daily Disappointment Oklahoman that he knew the Sooners should have taken possession of the ball, but the rules of the replay system kept him from making the correct call. He told The Oklahoman “I can’t let it go,” and I have to feel bad for a guy who’s obsessing over a football game months later.
Reading this news is still pretty frustrating after watching Oklahoma parked in the bottom of the rankings after the losses to Oregon and Texas. OU would probably be held in higher regard if it were a one-loss team. Still, after Texas lost to the Texas A&M Aggies yesterday, OU can play for the Big XII championship – and a top-tier bowl game – if it beats the flagging OSU Cowpokes. Playing a BCS bowl might be a nice end to a complicated season.
