As Oklahoma State head coach Mike Gundy looks to move on from a controversial loss against Central Michigan, he is taking steps to ensure he only plays games at home with power conference officials maintaining order on the field.
A day after the MAC and Big 12 each suspended officials for a disaster of an ending Saturday between Oklahoma State and Central Michigan, Gundy is making it perfectly clear he will not sign another contract with a team for a game in Stillwater unless he can have Power 5 conference officials on the field. This would, in theory, lead to better officiating crews working games and potentially diminish the chances for a blown call in a crucial moment. In theory. More importantly, if the officiating crew on the field comes from the same conference as the crew in the instant replay booth, a higher percent chance of having some uniformity in the decision-making and rules enforcement could be expected.
Saturday’s game featured officials from the MAC on the field and a Big 12 instant replay booth. Under Gundy’s new approach, he will no longer play a game that has officials from a Group of Five conference, but officials from the ACC, Big Ten, Pac-12 and SEC would still be OK by him.
“In a contract with a Power 5 school, you’re going to exchange officials on your one-to-one games. Otherwise, I would not go into a game without Big 12 officials,” Gundy said. “We’re playing a school that does not want to use our officials, you move on and find another school.”
Gundy compares MAC and Group of 5 officials to Double-A umpires in baseball. #okstate
— Nathan Ruiz (@NathanSRuiz) September 12, 2016
On Sunday, Gundy released a statement about the bizarre final play of the game that cost his team a victory. Oklahoma State hosts Pittsburgh of the ACC this week, which means there will most definitely be officials from power conferences to handle the referee duties.