So the sec office responds

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The replay official has indisputable video evidence that time should have remained on the game clock when the ball became dead or when the team timeout was granted;

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This is where they screwed us, for this reason I stated in another thread:

The officials stopped the clock correctly. I've made this point a dozen times. The knee hitting the ground, the official blowing his whistle and waving his arms, and the clock operator hitting the switch don't all happen at the same instant. As soon as the knee hit, the ref blew the whistle and waved to stop the clock. As soon as the clock operator heard the whistle and saw the signal, he stopped the clock. In real time, the normal human reaction time means that the clock stops somewhere between 0.3 and 1.0 seconds after the instant the knee hits. This happens literally on every play in a 60 minute game where the clock stops, but only on this play did a second get put back on the clock. Unlike a basketball clock, the football clock doesn't have tenths of seconds. Maybe there was only 0.2 seconds left, but you can't put 0.2 seconds on the clock. The rule should be changed so that time is only put back on the clock in a case where the clock operator was clearly slow stopping the clock...and at least 2 or 3 seconds tick off...or where the officials legitimately made a mistake.

There was no indisputable evidence that time should have still been on the clock. The clock hit 0:00 exactly when it should have, given the three distinctly independent events that have to happen in succession in order to stop the clock.

This. They shouldn't have been allowed to line-up and get set with the center touching the football.

Not surprising. In all the years we have watched absolutely PATHETIC SEC officiating and of all the times we have witnessed SEC officials blow calls in our games and others, how many times has the SEC, in its statement, said, “Yeah, that was a bad call. It shouldn’t have happened. We’ll fix it and make sure it doesn’t happen, again,”?

Not even once.

All the SEC statements on officiating ever is is a spin and a deflection of responsibility and an attempt to explain why something that clearly and indisputably is is really not.

It’s pathetic. But, no coach or AD will challenge them on it. Ever.

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The clock does not stop when a players knee is down on a first down. The clock stops when the ref signals for it to stop

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The wording of the rules are vague. It states the clock is stopped when the referee awards a team a first down. When does a ref "award the offense a first down" that requires the clock to be stopped?

Not surprising. Their incompetence has fricked us all season.

i just thought it was very nice of the ref to wait until auburn was fully set, before he wound the clock

First of all, if Carlson doesn’t make a 50 yarder then this is all moot. Kudos to him for taking that opportunity.

However, what gets me mad is that is that this wasn’t just a missed call like a knee being down or a foot on the line. It seems like a group of people had to screw up in order for this to happen. From the head ref buckling to Gus’ demands, to the replay booth, to the entire crew not being on the same page when it came down to setting up the last play. It’s a joke that the SEC is trying look the other way here.

Credit Malzahn for lobbying hard and getting in the faces of the refs. Saban should’ve done more than just take the word of the side judge. He should’ve been equally involved with the head ref as Malzahn. Saban went off on them after the fact but he should’ve been in the face of the head ref making sure that the enforcement was done correctly. Of course that’s hindsight.

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None of that makes sense to me.
I've said before what should have been done was the referee makes his statement and IMMEDIATELY blown the whistle to start the clock. But no, he makes his statement, let's everyone get set, moves out of the way, checks everyone, then blows his whistle.

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Something tells me a rule change will be proposed this offseason. As I said in another thread on the subject, the simplest way to fix it would be to require the players on the field for the play being reviewed to be on the field when the ball is put back into play. If you substitute players during an official review it's a penalty and, if under 2 minutes are left in the half or the game, a 10 second runoff unless you have a timeout to burn.

Yeah, I’d rather they not even respond at all instead of the BS spin they pump out every time they do this. It’s insulting.

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require the players on the field for the play being reviewed to be on the field when the ball is put back into play.

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what if it is the scenario where teh offense must score a TD, thus will already have the correct players on the field anyway.
Unfortunately the only real way to fix this issue is to never stop the clock on first down.
Think about this weird occurrence that the offense is out of timeouts, but will take a knee right as the clock is expiring, force a review, and get essentially a free time out. Don't know how you'd ever be able to pull that off, but if someone did, the way the SEC explained it, they would have to let the play go and the offense get that free timeout.