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The poor officiating in the Arkansas vs. Auburn game is not the reason why the Hogs lost to the Tigers.
I wanted to get that out of the way first before all of you start coming after me for what I am about to write. The Razorbacks did not execute their game plan effectively and Bo Nix did a tremendous job of leading the Tigers offense to multiple scoring possessions. Those are the facts and they are undisputable.
But everyone who watched that game on Saturday in its entirety saw the same things that Razorbacks fans saw. Horrible calls (or no calls) that had pretty significant impacts on the game itself.
Specifically the pass interference call on Hudson Clark on 3rd down in the 4th quarter where the ball was 10 yards out of bounds and completely uncatchable. Also the fumble by Jarquez Hunter where the ball was clearly out and recovered by Arkansas but the refs gave him forward progress by stopping the play dead.
These two plays alone could have been the difference in the game for Arkansas. May have not for sure given them the win, but would have at least made it much closer than the final score indicated.
Even former Heisman winner Tim Tebow tweeted about the ridiculousness of the officiating during the game:
As a die-hard fan of college football, it’s frustrating to watch some of these games being taken out of the player’s hands because of officiating. #AuburnVsArkansas
— Tim Tebow (@TimTebow) October 16, 2021
Now I know that not every game is going to be officiated perfectly. It’s an imperfect game. Coaches make mistakes, players make mistakes, and officials make mistakes. It’s out of the SEC’s control and it’s just unfortunate when it happens to your favorite team.
But what’s not out the SEC’s control is publicly owning up to mistakes and communicating with the fans as to how those mistakes are being addressed.
That’s not just for Razorback fans either. I am talking about all the fans in the SEC should be hearing from the front office when poorly officiated games take place. There’s a major trust issue between fans and the conference that could be helped drastically if there was more communication.
Coaches have press conferences after games to address what happened in the game. Players do the same thing. Not just the great plays, but also the big mistakes that they made.
But for some reason referees never have to answer questions when they make a mistake. They don’t have to have their feet held to the fire in the same way that coaches and players do. Why not? They are just as much a part of the game as coaches and players, so why can’t they answer for calls they made like the rest of them?
Instead, the SEC will MAYBE release a graphic that has a written statement on it saying something like:
You’re all wrong for thinking it was a bad call. It was actually the right call, you’re all just not understanding why it was called that way. So you’re actually the one at fault here! Not us! It’s you! So why don’t you just read a book for once in your life and stop complaining!
It’s pathetic. That doesn’t help anyone get better. It only further divides the trust that fans have for the conference officials and ends up boiling over. Similar to what we saw where Tennessee fans started throwing things on the field at the end of the Ole Miss game.
The Volunteers fans shouldn’t have acted that way. But what do you expect when you never own up to mistakes? Or at least publicly show the ways you’re trying to officiate the game better by addressing those mistakes?
All I ask is that the SEC show us all that these things are being worked on and fixed. Let us know when you screw up and that it will be fixed going forward. Tell us all when you have officials make egregious errors and how you will handle it.
The officials didn’t cost Arkansas the game on Saturday. But they certainly continue to lose the trust of fans week in and week out.
Let’s just hope we don’t see another situation like what happened in Knoxville when fans decide to take matters into their own hands.