Three Immediate Improvements to the CFB Game

Almost the entire ball was touching the ground. Not a catch.

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It was ruled not a catch. The rule is the problem, not the play. He caught it with total control. Foot down. Fumbled it when his arm hit the turf which should've been a 'the turf can't cause a fumbled.' Anderson's Overturned Catch

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“The turf can’t cause a fumble” is a misnomer as it very well can.

But this wasn’t a case of fumbling the ball, it was whether or not he made the catch. Which he did not.

Fwiw, it was ruled a catch on the field. The video evidence was conclusive that it wasn’t.

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s whether or not he made the catch. Which he did not.

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Only by some wrongheaded definition.

He caught it. Full control and possession. His foot touched in-bounds. The ball came loose when his arm hit the turf - which meant he was down. There was no bobble before that and what happened after that is irrelevant.

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This was the sideline catch, where he rolled out of bounds with the ball

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Correct.

The rules ought to be changed to where that would've been a catch.

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Limit replay to 30 seconds. If you can't see clear, indisputable evidence within 30 seconds, it ain't clear and indisputable.

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This is in the right spirit.

And this is the play mentioned in the OP. Should've been ball game but was overturned because the TE didn't make a "football move."

Aggie TE 'Fumble' '18

when you’re coming down with the ball you have to maintain control through the ground. even thought the ball never came out, it was moving when he went out of bounds.

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I dont think he is talking about the TD being overturned. This was the sideline catch, where he rolled out of bounds with the ball

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Right, he’s talking about the sideline play, and that was not a catch. He was bobbling the ball and didn’t completely posses it until he was out of bounds. The replay corrected that call.


On the TD catch, the replay incorrectly overturned the call on the field. As the “rules expert” they brought in confirmed, he didn’t “believe” it was a catch but there was no conclusive angle that showed it wasn’t - which the rule says is necessary.

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1) Stop with all the stoopid targeting calls

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I cannot fully agree with this. If ref believes he saw it, he should call it. The change should be the game shall continue though. Player has to come out while an Official Replay Review Ref does the review upstairs, if player is cleared he comes back in next play. May suck to lose a player for a play if they did not do anything wrong, but but it's only 1 play and that should also incentivize players to try even more to avoid hitting that area. Bottom line though is it does not hold up gameplay.

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2) Replay - limit to one look and that at full speed

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Disagree. It's 2024, use the technology we have an introduce more. And for the love of god add an Official Review Referee in the damn booth already so that the head umpire does not have to go over to the sideline and set up his screen & everything. Adding an Offical Review Ref to each game helps improve your concerns for #1 & #2

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3) What misguided rule is there that disallowed Aaron Anderson's catch tonight?

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These bang/bang "catches" still hard to decipher i must say. The old "ground can't cause the fumble" saying is taken out of context though as it means to say after the catch has been completed.

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Almost the entire ball was touching the ground. Not a catch.

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On the TD yes, the one on the sideline where he “didn’t survive the ground” should be a catch.

The ground can’t cause a fumbled so it shouldn’t cause an incompletion

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3) What misguided rule is there that disallowed Aaron Anderson's catch tonight?

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You can blame the NFL for this. They created the whole “catch must survive the ground“ rule. I don’t really like it either, but that’s the rule now courtesy of NFL.