Rule Change

[AUTUmike 79]

This isn't Auburn-specific, but watching a bunch of games this weekend reminded me of a rule change that I think needs to be considered.

Increasingly, I've noticed that when teams are rushing to the line to get off a quick snap before the play is reviewed, the official will blow the play dead after the ball has been snapped with the excuse that the booth buzzed the official before the ball was snapped. I think this needs to be changed to be based solely on the official's whistle. So regardless of when the official is buzzed from the booth, if he doesn't blow the whistle prior to the snap, then the play stands. As a fan, this seems to be getting worse and is far from transparent.

Maybe this bugs me more than most.... Thoughts?

[lionheartkc 6,150]

1 minute ago, AUTUmike said:

This isn't Auburn-specific, but watching a bunch of games this weekend reminded me of a rule change that I think needs to be considered.

Increasingly, I've noticed that when teams are rushing to the line to get off a quick snap before the play is reviewed, the official will blow the play dead after the ball has been snapped with the excuse that the booth buzzed the official before the ball was snapped. I think this needs to be changed to be based solely on the official's whistle. So regardless of when the official is buzzed from the booth, if he doesn't blow the whistle prior to the snap, then the play stands. As a fan, this seems to be getting worse and is far from transparent.

Maybe this bugs me more than most.... Thoughts?

While I think the refs should get off their butts and react more quickly when it's obviously a play has to be reviewed, I do not like the tactic of rushing to the line to get a play off before it's reviewed. That whole tactic seems very unsportsman like. If it wasn't for the fact that the booth gets it wrong far too often, I'd probably be even more adamant about this.

[WarTiger 3,901]

The offensive team rushing to the line is the problem.  With human reaction, nobody can make an instant decision.  The problem I see is that in this situation, the players rush to the line, and the officials kind of respond the same way, by rushing to get the ball set, etc.  One of the things we are taught as officials early in our careers is to set a pace and maintain that pace throughout the game.  This changes that and contradicts how we are taught to retrieve and spot the ball between downs.  I agree with Lionheart, in that I believe a team rushing to the line to snap the ball is very unsportsmanlike.  They are clearly (most of the time) trying to get away with something, whether its a completion that really wasn't, a fumble that was missed, etc.    My opinion on this is it doesn't matter when the ball is snapped, the officials job is to get the call right.  I understand the OP's position but vehemently disagree with allowing the play to stand if the snap happens (regardless of when the booth buzzed down for a review).   This line of thinking completely goes against the whole concept of getting the call right.  We as fans don't always agree with the decisions that come out of replay, but I've got a newsflash for you, officials don't always agree either.   Not everything is cut and dry.

[oracle79 3,569]

Get it right the first time (i.e. be competent) and this is a non factor.

[AUTUmike 79]

52 minutes ago, WarTiger said:

The offensive team rushing to the line is the problem.  With human reaction, nobody can make an instant decision.  The problem I see is that in this situation, the players rush to the line, and the officials kind of respond the same way, by rushing to get the ball set, etc.  One of the things we are taught as officials early in our careers is to set a pace and maintain that pace throughout the game.  This changes that and contradicts how we are taught to retrieve and spot the ball between downs.  I agree with Lionheart, in that I believe a team rushing to the line to snap the ball is very unsportsmanlike.  They are clearly (most of the time) trying to get away with something, whether its a completion that really wasn't, a fumble that was missed, etc.    My opinion on this is it doesn't matter when the ball is snapped, the officials job is to get the call right.  I understand the OP's position but vehemently disagree with allowing the play to stand if the snap happens (regardless of when the booth buzzed down for a review).   This line of thinking completely goes against the whole concept of getting the call right.  We as fans don't always agree with the decisions that come out of replay, but I've got a newsflash for you, officials don't always agree either.   Not everything is cut and dry.

You and lionheart make fair points about sportsmanship, but there is also a degree of gamesmanship to it. We see defensive lineman flail their arms to draw holding calls and WRs ham up contact to draw pass interference calls. I'm not always crazy about that, but I think the line gets a little fuzzy sometimes. Anyway, fair point.

I suppose I would have less of an issue if the officials would simply stand over the ball for an extra three or four seconds on an iffy call rather than blowing the play dead after it begins.

[WarTiger 3,901]

20 minutes ago, AUTUmike said:

You and lionheart make fair points about sportsmanship, but there is also a degree of gamesmanship to it. We see defensive lineman flail their arms to draw holding calls and WRs ham up contact to draw pass interference calls. I'm not always crazy about that, but I think the line gets a little fuzzy sometimes. Anyway, fair point.

I suppose I would have less of an issue if the officials would simply stand over the ball for an extra three or four seconds on an iffy call rather than blowing the play dead after it begins.

That's just not realistic.  Every official on the field has areas of responsibility.  If the official is covering his primary area, he has no idea what is happening elsewhere on the field.  For instance, how is the center judge (that is set up 12-15 yards behind the offense, and spots the ball between downs, supposed to know the catch 50 yards downfield is questionable when he's watching interior lineman on blocks? 

[AUTUmike 79]

2 hours ago, WarTiger said:

That's just not realistic.  Every official on the field has areas of responsibility.  If the official is covering his primary area, he has no idea what is happening elsewhere on the field.  For instance, how is the center judge (that is set up 12-15 yards behind the offense, and spots the ball between downs, supposed to know the catch 50 yards downfield is questionable when he's watching interior lineman on blocks? 

You're right--standing over the ball to hold up play briefly presents a few challenges (I was digging there). The bottom line though, in my opinion, is that if a play cannot be reviewed once the ball is snapped on the subsequent play, then the initiation of a review needs to be made transparent for both teams and fans.

[MaxP 137]

Maybe this deserves a thread of its own, but I am nervous about the new emphasis on sideline enforcement. Once is a 15 yard penalty, twice and the coach kicked out of the game. There is no way in Hades this will be enforced evenly. Do you think Saban will ever get penalized? How many games will Muschamp be tossed?

[AUTUmike 79]

1 minute ago, MaxP said:

Maybe this deserves a thread of its own, but I am nervous about the new emphasis on sideline enforcement. Once is a 15 yard penalty, twice and the coach kicked out of the game. There is no way in Hades this will be enforced evenly. Do you think Saban will ever get penalized? How many games will Muschamp be tossed?

Yeah I share your feelings on this one. I saw Dana Holgorsen get popped with a penalty on Monday and while he gets pretty fired up, that's nothing compared to some coaches (Saban, Harbaugh, Brian Kelly, etc.). I'll be very interested to see how this new emphasis is applied to Saban.

[lionheartkc 6,150]

11 hours ago, MaxP said:

Maybe this deserves a thread of its own, but I am nervous about the new emphasis on sideline enforcement. Once is a 15 yard penalty, twice and the coach kicked out of the game. There is no way in Hades this will be enforced evenly. Do you think Saban will ever get penalized? How many games will Muschamp be tossed?

Gus is concerned enough about it that he's already publicly voiced his concern. 

[keesler 5,924]

12 hours ago, MaxP said:

Maybe this deserves a thread of its own, but I am nervous about the new emphasis on sideline enforcement. Once is a 15 yard penalty, twice and the coach kicked out of the game. There is no way in Hades this will be enforced evenly. Do you think Saban will ever get penalized? How many games will Muschamp be tossed?

UAT got penalized Saturday night for sideline infraction, NS pitched a fit but it happened.

IIRC,  OSU got a penalty during their game too.

[StuntMan06 14]

I'm all for the booth replay but am absolutely sick of a game being paused for up to 5 minutes to determine the accuracy of the call on the field.

[MaxP 137]

Color me shocked. I wonder if those were SEC refs. I can foresee major controversy during conference play.

[Tiger 8,823]

2 hours ago, StuntMan06 said:

I'm all for the booth replay but am absolutely sick of a game being paused for up to 5 minutes to determine the accuracy of the call on the field.

I'd rather wait 5 minutes than to have a wrong call be the difference in a W or L.

However, I will say calls that you or I can assess with just 1 replay in ~10 seconds weirdly do take a long time

[LKEEL75 2,566]

15 minutes ago, Tiger said:

I'd rather wait 5 minutes than to have a wrong call be the difference in a W or L.

However, I will say calls that you or I can assess with just 1 replay in ~10 seconds weirdly do take a long time

I am no ref and I am sure that one of the refs on this forum can better speak to this, but there is a lot more to what they are doing than just the ~10 seconds of replay.  There are discussions about clock, field position, down & distance, at the least.  Often you want to make sure you have time to look at all the angles as well.  Often it looks one way in one angle but a different way in another.

My $0.02 is that the refs do the best they can (in most cases) to call an even and fair game.  I do think some teams get away with certain things more than other teams do but that is just part of it in my book.

[Tiger 8,823]

57 minutes ago, lkeel75 said:

I am no ref and I am sure that one of the refs on this forum can better speak to this, but there is a lot more to what they are doing than just the ~10 seconds of replay.  There are discussions about clock, field position, down & distance, at the least.  Often you want to make sure you have time to look at all the angles as well.  Often it looks one way in one angle but a different way in another.

My $0.02 is that the refs do the best they can (in most cases) to call an even and fair game.  I do think some teams get away with certain things more than other teams do but that is just part of it in my book.

You're right and my post was definitely not considering everything.