Iowa State football: Big 12 suspends replay officials after not reviewing controversial play
By Brian Spaen
The Big 12 has announced that they have suspended both the replay official and communicator after not following proper procedures to review a controversial catch in Saturday’s game between Iowa State and Kansas State
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From Big 12’s supervisor of football officials, Walt Anderson, on the Big 12’s official athletic website:
"After internal review it has been determined that the video evidence of the play was inconclusive. However, the replay official failed to follow established procedures in a timely manner, which prevented the play from being stopped for review prior to the next snap.Because of the video review process breach, the Replay Official and Communicator are receiving reprimands and each will receive a one-game suspension for failing to follow proper replay procedures and mechanics.”"
The play that caused this all was toward the end of the first half, when Tyler Lockett caught the ball in front of the endzone near the pylon. Television replay showed that Lockett’s knee touched the pylon before establishing possession of the ball, meaning that he was ruled out of play and cannot catch the ball. Before there was a signal to replay the game, Kansas State hurried up to the ball and snapped it.
If there’s any play that’s questionable in college football, it’s the replay official and communicator’s job to stop play and look at it, and they clearly should have done after the play in question. It’s a completely different story if you want to argue about the rule of making a player ineligible after they hit the pylon, which I’d say is pretty dumb.
Either way, the Cyclones get another apology after the fact. It’s pretty exciting; Iowa State will be sure to add that to the binder of apologies.