quote:
could name an entire laundry list of at least questionable calls Alabama benefitted from last night. The missed illegal procedure penalty is just one of those calls.

I agree there were several missed calls. I may be crazy, but I think other games have missed calls.

And I bet most of us are all familiar with illegal procedure rules and can all see when they are missed...we don't need an explanation of those.

Now the rule about simultaneous catches on the earlier pass in that drive was interesting and correctly applied. The next pass appeared to be the same...how many of us knew there was a difference in regards to simultaneous possession on the ground or off the ground? I didn't.

On a side note...these officiating conspiracy theories remind me of when I was a kid and we would get a new car. Within a day it seemed like half the state had purchased the same model and color automobile.

The Observer-Expectancy effect.

That's when someone tells you "there will be unusually many blue cars on the road today" and suddenly hey, there are. But without the prompting you would not have come to that conclusion yourself.

We all hear how the officials are out to help this team or hurt that team...and since officials are human...even replay officials, they will make mistakes. And when that mistake can fit what we falsely assumed was going to happen..."then I'll be damned...the officials are manipulating the game.."

I have been as guilty as anyone.

(For reference...I was a part of an undefeated HS team, (at the time),that lost by 1 point in a State Semifinal Game. We picked up a fumble and ran in for a TD. But an official had inadvertently blown his whistle...took the late TD away and gave the other team the ball back. I hated officials for a long time. But it happens...we all got to get over it

)

Thanks to the OP because I had not seen this and to the person who posted the link to the actual article and rule.