Officiating erroneous

I was in attendance at the sad debacle of a football game in Fayetteville on Saturday. Two great football teams met in a game that I paid hundreds of dollars for myself and my family to attend. I had a reasonable expectation that in exchange for the money I spent, I was entitled to see a well-played and fairly officiated competition between two exciting SEC teams.

One thing that is inarguable is that all those in attendance were denied a well-officiated game. The SEC, which undoubtedly was paid a lot of money to provide a reasonable quality of officiating, failed to deliver on its obligation.

This is the second year in a row that documentably incorrect calls were made, and then confirmed, by members of a group based in Alabama, that came down in favor of an Alabama-based team.

It appears that a similar situation occurred in Tennessee, where items were thrown on the field and at the opposing team in frustration over obviously bad calls made on the field that were then confirmed by the Alabama cabal.

At the Arkansas game, officials were loudly, continuously, and deservedly booed. I’ve never seen such vociferous, well-deserved disrespect of officials. If there were officials on the field who actually cared, I feel sorry for them. At least we didn’t throw things on the field, but I don’t blame the fans at Tennessee.

Thousands of fans attended both games at great expense, only to go home feeling robbed by the incompetence or corruption of the SEC. I think it’s time to start having reviews done by other conferences, or some other remedy. It’s obvious the SEC can’t be trusted to review its own refs.

I also strongly believe there should be a board established to review questioned calls after the game, and if confirmed calls are found to be erroneous, the conference should have to pay the aggrieved team fines, similar to those paid for rushing the field, etc. The officials making erroneous calls should be fined, and/or assigned points against their license.

DAVID EIFLING

Little Rock