College Football News 2015: ACC Suspends On-Field Officials after Miami-Duke Climax
The controversial ending to Saturday's Miami-Duke game has finally been addressed by the ACC, acknowledging on Sunday that the kickoff return touchdown that gave Miami the win was erroneously counted, when in fact it shouldn't have. Officials likewise recognized that there were four other errors that weren't called in the same play.
Same as other professional leagues in any sport, the result of the game will not be overturned, but suspensions are handed out to several officiating crew, including on-field and replay booth officials. The officials are effectively banned for two games.
The ACC conducted a weekly review of the game footage as part of the league's standard procedures, in the process determining that because of the missed calls, the officiating crew caused Duke the game, thereby warranting suspension.
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The ACC released a statement explaining the officiating errors as follows:
1. Replay official was at fault in failing to overturn the ruling on the field that a player from Miami released the ball prior to his knee going down. Supposed this call was made, the game would have already ended.
2. On-field officials erred the moment they failed to penalize Miami due to an illegal block at the back at Miami's 16-yard line. Supposed the call was made, the ball should have been put at the 8-yard line, which means the game could have extended with untimed down.
3. The referee erred because he was not able to effectively manage communication and explain the reason why the flag was picked up.
4. Finally, the on-field crew did not penalize a Miami player who left the bench area and entered the field before the end of the play. If the penalty was called, the touchdown would have been negative since it could have been called as a dead ball foul.
In his statement released to the press, Commissioner John Swofford said that the quality of officiating in the entire league is of utmost importance. He added, "The last play of the game was not handled appropriately."
The suspension was handed out to umpire Terrence Ramsay, referee Jerry Magallanes, linesman Mike Owens, back judge Robert Luklan, line judge Jim Slayton, side judge Michael McCarthy, field judge Bill Dolbow, and center judge Tracy Lynch.
