(12-01-2013 10:59 AM)ark30inf Wrote: (12-01-2013 10:50 AM)stebo Wrote: All this talk about bad officiating got me interested - I know that we have been a victim of that (or we felt we were at least!)... So I just watched the last series on the replay available online. I did not see any bogus calls. I saw a couple of late flags on both teams (one on ASU and one on WKU). The penalties appeared to be equal and ASU made a critical error in calling a timeout to give WKU a little breather with a time to talk and draw up a play.
ASU has traditionally been my #2 team, just because of the history of our two teams and the respect that I have for the fans. Mark and I have been online friends and fans that have shared a pint or two when we visited Jonesboro about ten years ago and I have always enjoyed cheering for ASU as my other favorite team... but I don't understand a couple of the fans' complaints about these calls (not all, but there are a couple that are going so far as to say that they do not recognize this as a loss!)
Calls seemed fair to me - on both sides of the ball. ASU has locked in 2nd and can still tie for 1st in the conference if UL loses next week (unlikely in my opinion, but possible). This is something that the Belt should not have to deal with - a possible co-champ sitting at home. It happened to MTSU the first year of this conference and could happen again. The Belt needs to finally nut up and establish true tie breakers and stop awarding shared championships. I have ALWAYS hated the "shared" championship idea - every conference should have a tie breaker waterfall to determine who is #1, #2, #3, etc...
I know that the stAte fans are feeling mad right now - but after you calm down, go back and watch that last drive online. I think that you will see that the refs were pretty strict with both teams - but there was no big conspiracy that went down. You had two evenly matched teams and only one could win... you play those two teams 10 times and 5 times will be won by each.
I think it would be a lot less of an issue except that we were already upset by the failure of the officials to penalize WKU for clearing the benches and coming to our side of the field to fight and that we had points taken off the board on the field goal.
Our QB got injured. Holding wasn't being called until they hit us with one.
We were already well primed to feel like we were getting jobbed when they got 9 shots at the end zone whether we were actually getting jobbed or not.
Understood - but all the calls that I just watched were valid calls. If you are to be mad at anyone, be mad at the players for the penalties. Probably the most unnecessary penalty was the roughing the passer - the game would have been over but the stAte player had too much frustration built up and didn't avoid hitting the QB. That was the key penalty in my opinion. I also saw WKU get a TD called back in that series - so they could just as easily argue that they felt things were being called too tightly on their team.
Like I said - I love me some stAte - have been a fan since our two programs were tied at the hip from the last year of the Big West until 2013 - and I still believe that stAte should get a bowl invite from Go Daddy, they are the undisputed #2 team and couple possibly be tied for #1 if Louisiana loses next week... But this exposes a weakness in the Belt when it comes to bowls, they have shifted the majority of the selection power to the bowl committee in order to secure the slots. This allows the bowl to choose who will bring the most people and look the best on paper/in the paper/on TV. WKU has an 8-4 record and beat 4 OOC opponents...
This whole crap about who is leaving the conference is bogus - WKU is a founding member of the Belt. I hate to see these sour grapes. Western has been around through thick and thin with the Belt and their basketball units (from their last Sweet 16 run) will stay with the conference when they leave, paying all members some serious cash over the unit's cycle.
I hate to bring up CUSA, but I think a comparison can be made... CUSA has exiting teams this year as well and there is very little conversation about keeping them out of a bowl, even with 8 bowl eligible teams and only 6 slots. I haven't seen it mentioned other than as a joke - and about the worst that anyone has suggested is to ship one of them off to Hawaii. I think you will see that neither Tulane nor ECU will get sent to Hawaii - because everyone shares in the payouts equally so that doesn't make sense for the collective group. Even if those schools will be in the AAC next year.
Go stAte - I hope that you get into a bowl. You definitely have a great program there in Jonesboro with great fans. Three coaches in a row and you just keep winning - how awesome is that??!! WKU - you won some very impressive OOC games this year and an 8 win season for any team at our level is tough to get to. So I can see an argument for your team's case as well.