We noted on Saturday that it looked as though Florida received a little bogus help from SEC officials in their “win” over Arkansas.
Most notably, there was a pass interference call that wasn’t and a phantom personal foul on an Arkansas player. Additionally, a case could be made that UF wide receiver Riley Cooper committed offensive pass interference after those two blown calls. (The three calls under suspicion can be viewed right HERE.)
Well, this afternoon, the SEC admitted the officials working the game had erred, although they only publicly admitted that one of the calls was wrong.
After reviewing the events in The Swamp, the conference released a statement addressing the personal foul call.
“After video review, there was no evidence on the video to support the personal foul penalty called on Arkansas midway through the fourth quarter.”
The league did not publicly address the pass interference call that preceded the personal foul and occurred on the same drive, but the Orlando Sentinel reports that the SEC said that call was a “judgment call” and “a review of those calls have been communicated to Arkansas.”
It should also be noted that the same crew involved in the events this past Saturday was responsible for the phantom excessive celebration penalty on Georgia’s A.J. Green in the LSU-UGA game. The league came out shortly after that game and admitted the officials should not have flagged Green.
Look, it’s all well and good that the SEC is willing to admit that their officials are not infallible. But, when are they going to, you know, prevent it from happening before it really costs someone a game? Especially when it comes to the crew that seemingly has no clue as to what exactly constitutes a personal foul or excessive celebration.
All this is doing, right or wrong, is making the conference look shady, and giving conspiracy theorists ample video ammunition that something is not on the up and up.
UPDATE: Here is the full text of the press release from the SEC, courtesy of the Birmingham News:
As is standard procedure, following each game, institutions will send a list of plays from its previous game to the conference office for review and comment. We have been in contact with Arkansas concerning this review from its game against Florida. We did communicate to Arkansas that, after video review, there was no evidence on the video to support the personal foul penalty called on Arkansas midway through the fourth quarter. The other calls that were referenced are judgment calls and a review of those calls have been communicated to Arkansas.