A reader asked me a question I can’t really answer. He is a resident of one of the states of a Big 10 school, and his concern is about the Big 10’s instant replay procedure.

This season the NCAA cleared the Big 10 to experiment with instant replay in order to possibly correct officiating errors.

Basically, what I know about the procedure is for games between Big 10 schools the conference will assign an observer, usually a retired official, who will sit in a booth in the press box with a television monitor.

There will be no special feed, meaning the observer will have access to regular commercial TV only. This means he will see no special angles and normally have no multiple views of a play. The observer is also the only person who can call for review of a play.

If the replay official sees a play he wants to review, he must notify the officiating crew before a subsequent play is run. He is the sole judge on the correctness of any call he reviews.

The reader had questions about a pair of reviewed plays in last week’s Ohio State-Wisconsin game. It seems Wisconsin had fumbled during both of those plays, with Ohio State appearing to recover the ball both times.

The officials on the field ruled in both instances Wisconsin had retained possession, and the review official overruled them in both cases.

However, the on-field officials ruled in both instances that an official had sounded his whistle. Since the ball becomes dead by rule &uot;when an official sounds his whistle, even if inadvertently&uot; the fumble recoveries by Ohio State were of a dead ball and of no matter.

I haven’t seen an actual copy of the Big 10 procedure, but I can’t imagine it could allow a change of the rulings in question.

Watching a few minutes of three SEC games this weekend brought home the passage of time. Those games involved 24 officials, which included the alternate official/clock operator, who is a regular official as he might be called on to replace one of the other officials in case of injury or illness.

Of the 24 officials, I knew only six who were on the roster during the 2000 season, my last as an observer. Several more were likely on the reserve list before that time.

I saw only two who were working in the SEC during the 1989 season, which was my last on the field.

This is not to infer officiating quality has been affected. New officials move up every season, and all have paid the price by years of officiating at the high school and small college, and many have moved over to the SEC from other conferences.

After each season a number of officials will leave the SEC for any number of reasons. Some just aren’t good enough and never should have been taken on in the first place. Others move up to the NFL, some move out of the area and others quit officiating because of family or work pressures.

A few, like yours truly, eventually reach that mandatory but unwritten age limit and have to hang it up.

And that’s official.

Al Graning is a former SEC official and former Natchez resident. Reach him at

AlanWard39157@aol.com

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