Let’s be clear: SU is a seasoned fan.  I do not blame referees for losses as games are won and lost much earlier than the last play of the game.  We all know that although in the heat of the moment, it’s easy to just focus on that last play.  This is the case in every sport.  But having watched many Big Ten football and basketball games over the past 10+ years, it’s very clear that for a major college conference, the quality of officiating is truly terrible and consistently bad.  It was actually shocking to learn that the NCAA championship game Monday night had Big Ten officials.  I mean did all of the other conference officials have the day off?  What were they thinking?

Last night, Michigan and Purdue played a spirited game.  Purdue led until just a few minutes were left when Michigan finally took a small lead.  The game was tied when Charles Matthews of Michigan drove to the basket.  He was stripped on the baseline and the ball went out of bounds with 6.5 seconds left.  Time out by Michigan.  The Purdue coach asked the officials to review the play just for the hell of it as he said afterwards.  After a 5-minute review delay, they awarded the ball to Purdue.  The announcers saw nothing for the first 3-4 minutes of the delay but in order to fill the time started a process to review it frame by frame – like the Zapruder film of the Kennedy assassination.  You still couldn’t see anything but as a fan, you knew they would overturn after a while.  It was a clean strip that happens many times in a game at any level of basketball.  Purdue ball and then a touch foul on a pass into the low post that was probably a foul.  Guy makes 1 of 2 foul shots and that’s the game.

SU’s point: let the players decide the game at the end.  Review is only for plays that are clearly hard to tell.  You can look at any strip of the ball with today’s technology and determine that in some freeze frame a finger might have hit the ball.  If that’s the case, then officials should review every strip on every strip play.  The delay broke the flow of the game and what had been a terrific ending.  I don’t know if Michigan would have won but to have the game determined by the refs on a reversal there was a joke.  Ironically, the referee who made the reversal also refs NFL games – Gene Steratore.  He must have had his NFL cap on was looking to see if the ball moved in the receiver’s hands as he completed the catch….

That’s the rant for the morning.  All SU asks is that the referees consider the flow of the game and what they are reviewing.  This was overkill.  Make the change now.