re: The Big Eye Doesn’t Lie

Bad calls at Bama and Auburn are not new. LSU (and other teams) always get's the shaft when playing these teams near the SEC office. Been wondering for years when it would come to a head. Maybe that time is now.

Lame article. There's always some excuse when the "good guys" lose.

very good article!

and i agree, we were shafted on the interception call!

nevertheless, it saddens me to admit we were still outplayed and outcoached.
our team discipline remains an albatross -as evident by continuing dumbass penalties. clock management remains horrid...we remain unable to take advantage of so much individual talent as a cohesive team unit~

This may not be a popular thing to say with a certain segment of our fanbase (the whiny part perhaps) but I think this is a lot of misplaced emotional energy

the better team won, the refs screwed up some calls... and the peterson interception was a lousy lousy example... but enough - the better team won the game and that's the big story of interest on monday morning

if you want to write a year in review for the sec in which crap calls by officials are emphasized that would be fine if not appropriate

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I want to preface my comments about the many bad officiating calls in this game by saying that I believe the better team on the field won.

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How would you know that if calls were missed whether be by accident or purposely.
That makes this story lose some of its teeth with that comment.

Corruption in sports is nearly as old as sport itself. For those who don't "understand" how matchups can be created, you're incredibly naive. Just a call or two at the right moment in a football game is all it takes. These guys have been calling these games, sometimes for decades. Don't doubt that they know exactly what to call, when to call it and know that it will be "covered" by the SEC office. Our league and the officiating has been the joke of college football this year. Who can recall coaches so openly criticizing the officiating? I can't ever remember it on this level. Slive thinks he's invincible and that the SEC is invincible under his control. A frightening prospect and somewhat delusional. I believe that officiating should be turned over to the NCAA where officials aren't accountable to the money guys of the conference and they cannot be part of any conference agenda to create the most lucrative matchups. Rotating officials around the nation and giving them "professional" status would make them more accountable, especially if it's their full time careers rather than a part time gig that pays refs $500.00 per game. The lure of payoffs for these guys has got to be huge and given that Alabama boosters are used to paying big money to high school coaches, players, players' families, etc., the prospect of paying refs for a few calls seems all too real and completely plausible. The problem for the conference and refs is that the average fan now has the benefit of DVR, as well as watching the broadcast network replay that particular play from many, many angles. People are now non-believers in the "soundness" of officials and have video proof. As a result of this scrutiny, officials are now being called out by the fans, the coaches and even the league has to suspend some of them when they've been caught without a chance in hell of defending the call. It's time for change in the SEC. First and foremost, the SEC office needs to be moved completely out of the state of Alabama. That would be the first and best way to start to rid the SEC of its reputation of corruption. Mike Slive should long have been fired by that point and someone from another area of the country with an impeccable reputation should be brought in to administer the conference. Again, the officiating control should be removed from conference control and officials rotated nationally as full time officials. Until much of this happens, Alabama will continue to be the darling of the SEC offices, count on it. Many of you will ask why Alabama didn't benefit under Mike Shula's tenure as coach. My answer to that would be that they weren't good enough to keep games close most years and so couldn't benefit by "home cooking". That's all changed now that they are competitive again and a few "well placed" calls go a long way in winning against teams like LSU and Tennessee. Sometimes all it takes is one, perhaps an interception that's called an incompletion.

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You know why they get it right on the playground?

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Integrity and respect for the game.

Where the real conspiracy lies is in the calls not made in the LSU - Gump game ( ex. the Richard Simmons in a dildo shop type of holding the Gump-line was performing on LSU's D ) and when looking at other games. Bama should have lost to Tennessee. UF should have lost to Arkansas. Now Bama met a much better team in LSU, and the officials steered not just a few plays but 90% of the game their way. That's what fuels the conspiracy theory and moves it from the land of doubt to the most probable explanation.

I'm sure many on here will say the following comments belong on the poli board but, as in everything in life, there are parallels.

I find it ironic that so many on here who claim to be such staunch Conservatives and are okay with the unregulated practices of Wall St., are anti-union and anti-labor and in general so absorbed in making money at all costs find fault with the SEC in it's at least perceived, if not real, bias towards getting the most lucrative matchup possible for the SECCG and a place in the BCSCG. After all, money is what it's all about.
It's perfectly okay with them for Wall St. to engage in practices that rob people of their livelihoods, homes, health care and savings, but don't frick with their football team!
It's perfectly okay with them for companies to close down factories and outsource jobs putting Americans out of work thus virtually destroying the tax base for gov't.'s and Social Security yet increasing the wealth of the CEO's and owners, but don't frick with their football team!
It's perfectly okay with them for gov't. to have to cut the funding for seniors food programs or child care, but don't frick with their football team!
As in life itself, for the SEC and it's teams, when the pursuit of riches becomes your god, the end result is the same-you may get rich in the pocketbook but you get much much poorer in the bigger game of life.

Though I agree and maintain some of the same beliefs, you can't use "Mike Slime", and actually expect to be taken serious. It's something that a child would say, and is rather "rant like". Your article, though well intentioned, would have been better avoiding such pitfalls.