Once again, Pac-10 officials show lack of ‘judgment’

Published 10:51 am Monday, September 8, 2008

SEATTLE — Congratulations, Pac-10 officials.

The day after a thrilling game, one that came down to the wire, you, not the game, are the story.

Again.

People aren’t talking about the sometimes erratic and sometimes brilliant touchdown drive Jake Locker led to send the game — we all thought — into overtime.

They aren’t talking about BYU keeping alive its quest for an undefeated season, or about the brilliant games of Cougars quarterback Max Hall, tight end Dennis Pitta and halfback Harvey Unga.

They’re talking, instead, about a flag that didn’t need to be thrown. Larry Farina said his crew had no choice but to call unsportsmanlike conduct on Jake Locker, who flipped the ball into the air after diving into the end zone to make the score 28-27.

“It is a celebration rule that we are required to call,” Farina told a University of Washington official. “It was not a judgment call.”

Wrong. Every call is a judgment call. The rule Farina cited prohibits “throwing the ball high into the air.”

Well if the NCAA wants to be such sticklers for the rules, if they want to take all the emotion and joy out of a big moment in a big game, let’s really get picky.

How high is high? Ten feet? Twenty? How ‘bout 30. And how the heck was Locker supposed to know how high is too high.

Jake Locker is a lot of things, but unsportsmanlike certainly isn’t one of them. Locker respects his opponents, he respects football, and he’d be about the last person on the field in any game to taunt anybody. He was excited, and he had every right to be.

“Everybody knows he wouldn’t taunt anybody,” said Washington offensive coordinator Tim Lappano. “That’s not the type of kid he is. He was celebrating with his teammates. I don’t agree with it.”

Instead of enjoying one of the best moments of his college career, Locker was left to apologize to teammates when he had no reason to.

“I was kind of disappointed in myself that I had done that,” he said.

Now let’s be clear on something: the officials didn’t cost the Huskies the game. Washington should still have been able to make the 35-yard extra point that followed the penalty. The Huskies’ defense had a hard time stopping BYU all day, and it’s far from a sure thing that the Huskies would have won in overtime. BYU was outplaying Washington almost all afternoon, and there’s a good chance the Cougars would have done the same thing in overtime.

But Farina’s crew became a story when it didn’t need to be. The day after BYU’s win, the front page of ESPN.com linked to a story in which Pac-10 writer Ted Miller said, “It was one of the worst judgment calls you will ever see — no your eyes and instincts and sense of fairness didn’t deceive you.

“The officials could have sat back and let an entertaining game end in thrilling fashion, but instead we’re left to debate the interpretation of a rule.”

An ESPN poll asked fans if Locker should have been called for unsportsmanlike conduct, and by a little after midnight Saturday, over 42,000 people had voted, and 79 percent said the flag shouldn’t have been thrown.

No poll asking whether Tyrone Willingham should keep his job.

No poll wondering if BYU was BCS worthy.

Just a question about officiating.

Other national Web sites such as Foxsports.com also weighed in with columns on BYU vs. Washington. They didn’t write about the game, about BYU’s impressive offense or Washington’s exciting sophomore quarterback. They wrote about a controversial call that stained an otherwise great football game.

“If Ty Willingham gets fired at Washington for losing too many games, you’d have to put an asterisk beside this particular loss,” wrote Foxsports.com’s Matthew Zemek. “By all rights, the homestanding Huskies should have sent this game into overtime, but an unconscionable act by the zebras enabled the game to finish prematurely.”

Congratulations, Pac-10 officials.

Of course, this is nothing new to the men in stripes who work Pac-10 football games. Remember 2006 when Pac-10 officials blew a call on an onside kick that helped Oregon beat Oklahoma by a point. Officials blew that call when it happened, and still couldn’t get it right with the benefit of a review. That miscue earned a one-game suspension for the guilty officiating crew and plenty of embarrassment for the conference.

How about last year when the Huskies benefited from an absurd fumble ruling late in an eventual loss to Oregon State, which was even more absurdly upheld after a replay. The man in charge of that crew? None other than Larry Farina.

A call that crushed Husky fans on Saturday could also end up being bad for BYU. If the Cougars beat UCLA next week, and if they run the table against the Mountain West Conference, there’s a good chance the Cougars will follow Utah, Boise State and Hawaii as a non BCS-conference team playing in a BCS bowl game.

That’s an accomplishment that should and will be celebrated, but questions will linger in the backs of football fans’ minds. Should BYU be undefeated? Did officials help the Cougars steal a win back in September? Would they have won that game in Seattle had it gone to overtime?

We’ll never know the answer to that last question, but it sure would have been fun to find out.

Contact Herald Writer John Boyle at jboyle@heraldnet.com. For more on University of Washington sports, check out the Huskies blog at heraldnet.com /huskiesblog