I tell ya' Herbie:
Officiating is often blamed for losses at every level of football, but at times blame is more than warranted.
Take last week's game between Texas Tech and Baylor at the home of the Bears in Waco.
The visiting underdog Red Raiders have battled the Bears to overtime with Baylor getting the ball first.
Baylor's center snaps the ball off his own rump and the ball falls to the turf, which Texas Tech recovers,
This would have given Tech a huge advantage as they would only have to kick a field goal to win the game, but instead, the referee ruled the play dead with an illegal snap penalty on Baylor.
This is a mistake as if the snap is continuous, it cannot be a dead ball.
Baylor would win the game 33-30 in double overtime.
Who knows what Tech would have done with their possession, but they had a lot going for them if the referee would have made the correct call.
But, Texas Tech did receive one of those apologies from the league, so I guess that makes it OK...
I tell ya' Herbie:
There were a few games of importance that were high scoring and exciting last Saturday with LSU's win over Florida and Oklahoma topping Texas, but those games were seen on national television for anyone to watch that chose to do so, but the game of the day was exiled to the new ACC Network that many fans don't have.
Wake Forest entered the game undefeated and ranked and hosted 3-2 Louisville.
In a game that saw each team move up and down the field and seemingly scoring with every possession, Louisville dropped the Demon Deacons 62-59 and the really interesting part?
It ended in regulation.
Usually, college football's overtime ends in an inflated crazy score (one of the reasons that I prefer the NFL version that uses the entire field), but a score like that in regulation?
It was a rare time that I felt like I missed out on an ACC game worth watching!
I tell ya' Herbie:
Another interesting note was from the television aspect as CBS, which has first call on SEC games, chose top-ranked Alabama's game vs 24th ranked Texas A&M over the battle between 5th ranked LSU and 7th rated Florida.
The Tigers and Gators game was given to ESPN with the second choice of SEC games and the Worldwide Leader was rewarded with their highest-rated game of the last two seasons.
Even though the Aggies were ranked, they were a sizable underdog and the LSU-Florida game was one that fans were excited about seeing, so the CBS decision had to be about the Saban factor or maybe even the Texas market, but even before the ratings were in, it seemed that CBS had chosen the wrong game.
I tell ya' Herbie:
South Carolina's upset of Georgia between the hedges could have a major impact on the four team playoff when that time comes, but the Gamecocks aren't finished with having a say on the bigger bowls and it's not only for their season-ending game against Clemson.
South Carolina hosts Appalachian State on November 9th and with the Mountaineers now ranked at 24th, Appalachian State's visit to Columbia stands as the largest roadblock for an undefeated season.
Appalachian State defeated Louisiana-Lafayette last week in a rematch of last year's Sun Belt title game and looks to be too much for the remainder of their schedule, barring a slip-up until visiting South Carolina or their Sun Belt title game opponent.
Here is where that could get interesting. If Boise State loses one game, would the title committee in deciding who gets the group of five bid, take an undefeated Appalachian State over a one loss Broncos or a one loss American champion?
It's interesting to think about as if Applachian State defeats South Carolina, they would have two Power Five victories over South Carolina and North Carolina, which would be more than Boise State or any potential American champion except Temple, who holds wins over Maryland and Georgia Tech.
Would that be enough to put a Sun Belt team in?
I tell ya' Herbie:
We wrap with another note on Friday football from the Big Ten or as we call it- Cash Grab Friday.
Despite being unpopular with the schools as well as their fan base, the Big Ten is still collecting dollars from their television partners and this Friday, they gave FS1, who televises their games, one of their bigger fish in the Ohio State Buckeyes.
Between a national fan base, their number four ranking and the talented Justin Fields, FS1 had to be salivating for the Ohio State appearance, but as so often happens when you do things only for money, things go awry.
The Wednesday rainout of game four of the ALCS, shoved games four and five to Thursday and Friday, which was originally planned to be a travel day now had a scheduled game.
With Fox starting a relationship with the WWE and it's Smackdown program, Fox didn't want to bump the McMahon gang, so they reluctantly needed to place the ALCS on FS1 and bump the Ohio State-Northwestern to the Fox-affiliated, but lesser carried Big Ten network.
I'd feel bad for these parties, if they weren't so greedy to start with.
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