No.3 Texas 27 – No.13 Oklahoma State 17

The Texas offense answered questions for some people last week against Missouri but not for me. Missouri has given up 20 or more points in 5 of their 7 games this year and is the only BCS conference team that yielded more than one TD to Nebraska. The Texas offense won’t allow UT to run away from Oklahoma State. This will be a close game into the 4th quarter but I expect Texas to hang on in close contest.

Other Big 12 picks

Texas Tech 38 – Kansas 34

Texas A&M 31 – Iowa State 20

Nebraska 27 – Baylor 6

Oklahoma 45 – Kansas State 10

Missouri 31 – Colorado 24

Slive must come out in defense of his officials and that’s to be expected, the hypocrisy stems from the actions of Slive leading up to his decision to clamp down on criticism of officiating.

Toward the end of the October 3rd game between LSU and Georgia the officials called a critical unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on Georgia receiver A.J. Green after a go ahead touchdown that was, frankly put, a bad call. So after taking the lead with just over a minute left in the game, a questionable call has Georgia kicking off, 15 yards further back, to the most dangerous return man in the nation, LSU’s Trindon Holiday. Holiday returned the kickoff 40 yards to the UGA 38 yard line and LSU went on to the win the game.

After that game Slive was asked why the SEC didn’t publicly reprimand officials for mistakes, he responded by saying there is no reason to have “public hangings” when officials make bad calls.

Two weeks later the same crew that oversaw UGA/LSU was at the center of another controversy during the Florida/Arkansas game. On Florida’s game tying drive midway through the 4th quarter, Florida benefited from two questionable calls, one that included a personal foul late hit where it was clearly the Florida player that came in late.

Later that week the SEC said there was no video evidence to support the personal foul call and suspended the crew until November 14th. It was the first time in the history of the conference an officiating crew was publicly suspended.

Slive had this to say after the suspension:

“The entire crew shoulders responsibility for each play. I have taken this action because there must be accountability in our officiating program. Our institutions expect the highest level of officiating in all of our sports and it is the duty of the conference office to uphold that expectation.”

-Slive

Just weeks after his “public hangings” comment Slive was at the front of the mob rope in hand. Now after publicly admitting his officials got it wrong and must be held accountable, he wants to fine and suspend coaches for doing the same. I understand Slive can’t allow coaches to publicly question officials, but he is now attempting to police an atmosphere that his actions helped foster.

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