ATHENS, Ga. — SEC commissioner Greg Sankey has talked “repeatedly” this week with Auburn leadership after the blown call in its loss at Oklahoma, and there has also been “plenty of communication” with officials.
Last Saturday, Oklahoma scored a touchdown on an illegal “hideout” play, where a receiver pretended to leave the field as a substitute but stayed on and caught the touchdown. The Sooners won the game 24-17. That night, the SEC released a statement saying the play should have been a penalty.
“No excuses. We have to meet that moment,” Sankey said Saturday, where he was attending the Georgia-Alabama game. “And we set out through our video communication process, through our officials and our coaches, clarity on both expectations and expanding our horizons when asking questions and when understanding what’s taking place.”
There has been no announced discipline for the crew from that game, but it did not work any SEC games this weekend. The conference typically doesn’t announce internal discipline for officials, with Sankey saying Saturday that they’re cognizant of not making harassment worse for referees. The SEC subscribes to a threat-monitoring service, and Sankey said there have been “troubling” reports from there on threats to officials, such as doxing.
“We’ve explained publicly our system for evaluation and oversight. We’ve also said, just like internal team discipline, we’re not going to make that a communication publicly. There’s a lot of harassment around people that takes place, a lot of criticism,” Sankey said. “We’ve done well in our evaluation process. When things go wrong, that’s part of the evaluation process. But you know, football, a football game, is a big picture of a lot of things that happen, and I think the focus has to be on that big picture, and we have to respect officials who are challenged every day to get it right.”
Sankey spoke to reporters for nearly 20 minutes, and much of the subject matter related to officiating. The first question he got was whether the SEC could make in-game replay reviews public via the game broadcast. The ACC started doing that this season.
The SEC has indeed discussed it, Sankey said, and will continue thinking about it.
“You don’t always have to be the first mover. We’ve done some things first, right? And that’s one where it’s interesting to learn,” Sankey said. “I think we actually watched a couple of clips after week one and learned some things from what they’re doing. And we’ll see what that means in the future. We’re going to do it as best we can and make sure it doesn’t interfere with decision making, because the core of what happens in replay is to officiate the game.”
Speaking of reviews, Sankey said he has suggested expanded use of replay to cover “certain objective issues,” such as the Oklahoma hideout play, as well as illegal touching, formations or face mask penalties. Sankey said he would prefer a coach challenge system in those cases to minimize game stoppages.
“I think those are reasonable and important conversations as we think about how technology is used and how we balance what is a responsibility for every play to stop, compared to coaches engaging through that challenge system like we see in other sports,” Sankey said. “ There’s something to that that needs to be more deeply explored.”
(Photo: Kevin C. Cox / Getty Images)