Mississippi State AD Releases Statement After SEC Admits Officiating Errors
Mississippi State may not have played its best game on Saturday against Memphis, but the Bulldogs very well may have still come out on the winning end of it if it weren't for officiating errors.
MSU Director of Athletics John Cohen took to Twitter with a statement on Sunday in regards to the issue.
"I appreciate the transparency of the SEC and the admission of officiating errors yesterday," Cohen wrote. "It is extremely disappointing when student-athletes are not fully in control of a game's outcome, especially when taking into consideration the time, effort and resources put into an officiating system created to eliminate human error on the field whenever possible. The entire SEC has an expectation that the process will work as intended. Our football program's focus is now on LSU."
While there appeared to be more than just one terrible call during the game, the primary issue at hand was this 94-yard punt return for a touchdown by Memphis' Calvin Austin III in the fourth quarter.
In the statement it released, the SEC also admitted to missing a call on Memphis for having two players on the field wearing the No. 4 jersey on the field at the same time. MSU was also flagged for an onside kick it recovered.
The SEC may "just mean more" but there's a call to action to perhaps "just do more" when poor officiating like this has such a strong bearing on the final outcome of a game.
