Archive for November, 2009

 

Does the SEC have the Fix in for Florida/Alabama?

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First, we had the bogus celebration penalty against Georgia late in the LSU/Georgia game.  Then, we had the bogus personal foul call on Arkansas late in the Florida/Arkansas game.  Now, here we are a few weeks later with undefeated Alabama playing a now 1-loss LSU team, and yet again the refs take away a chance for LSU to make a comeback at the end with the bogus call we see in the youtube video above.
It certainly behooves the SEC to have the undefeated #1 and #2 teams in the nation playing in the SEC Championship game.  Aside from the huge media event that it would turn that game into (tickets on ebay for the Florida/Bama matchup are now going for no less than $500 apiece even for upper deck seats), it also behooves the conference to guarantee the winner of that game heads to the national title game and bring in the big BCS bucks.  So, how far would they go for that money?  Would they ever possibly put the fix in and tell the refs to do what they can to make it happen?
This blogger personally doesn’t see it.  To be caught doing something like that would mean cleaning house of a bunch of individuals who are probably already so rich that they don’t need that extra cash that badly anyhow.  Further, LSU was also flagged with a celebration penalty against Georgia to try and even things out, the personal foul on Arkansas wasn’t THAT game changing of a call (it came after a play where Florida had already picked up a 1st down anyhow, so all it gave them was 9 yards of field position), and this LSU/Bama play was a bang/bang play that, while the incorrect call, is still not so horribly obvious that I think conspiracy was involved.
That said, the conspiracy theory has really picked up steam on the internet, and on the surface that trio of awful calls looks pretty damning to SEC officials.  What say you, fellow internet mongers?

First, we had the bogus celebration penalty against Georgia late in the LSU/Georgia game.  Then, we had the bogus personal foul call on Arkansas late in the Florida/Arkansas game.  Now, here we are a few weeks later with undefeated Alabama playing a now 1-loss LSU team, and yet again the refs take away a chance for LSU to make a comeback at the end with the bogus call we see in the youtube video above.

It certainly behooves the SEC to have the undefeated #1 and #2 teams in the nation playing in the SEC Championship game.  Aside from the huge media event that it would turn that game into (tickets on ebay for the Florida/Bama matchup are now going for no less than $500 apiece even for upper deck seats), it also behooves the conference to guarantee the winner of that game heads to the national title game and bring in the big BCS bucks.  So, how far would they go for that money?  Would they ever possibly put the fix in and tell the refs to do what they can to make it happen?

This blogger personally doesn’t see it.  To be caught doing something like that would mean cleaning house of a bunch of individuals who are probably already so rich that they don’t need that extra cash that badly anyhow.  Further, LSU was also flagged with a celebration penalty against Georgia to try and even things out, the personal foul on Arkansas wasn’t THAT game changing of a call (it came after a play where Florida had already picked up a 1st down anyhow, so all it gave them was 9 yards of field position), and this LSU/Bama play was a bang/bang play that, while the incorrect call, is still not so horribly obvious that I think conspiracy was involved.

That said, the conspiracy theory has really picked up steam on the internet, and on the surface that trio of awful calls looks pretty damning to SEC officials.  What say you, fellow internet mongers?  Let us know in the comments section.

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