Report: Big XII to evaluate “entire officiating operation”

After several high-profile officiating mistakes on the field and in the replay booth, the Big XII conference will evaluate its football officiating.

Jon Wilner was the first to report this on Tuesday.

Former Big XII referee Greg Burks is the conference supervisor of officials.

The first big mistake happened October 17, during the BYU-Notre Dame game. Replay clearly showed :01 left on the clock, leaving time for Notre Dame to try one more game-winning play. Replay incorrectly ruled that time had expired, the game over, and BYU the winner.

Then, on October 31, the officials and instant replay mistakenly awarded BYU a touchdown against Arizona State University.

And on October 24, the Big XII wrongly enforced a 10-second runoff, denying the chance for the University of Central Florida a chance to upset BYU in regulation. UCF eventually won the game in overtime.

According to Wilner’s report, executives will look at every aspect of Big XII officiating. It is unknown if they will issue a public report on their findings or if there will be any in-season adjustments.

Every year there are controversial judgement calls. But when officials – on the field or in the replay booth – get rules wrong or miss obvious, game-changing calls, officiating suffers. When these errors start to pile up, executive reviews are inevitable.

It will be interesting to see the result of this review.