Southeastern Conference football officials are looking forward to working three bowl games this season and did not lose an assignment because of South Carolina’s decision not accept a bowl invitation.

Included on the SEC officials’ agenda this season are the Las Vegas Bowl, which will be Thursday and matches UCLA and Wyoming. That is followed Dec. 28 by the Insight Bowl between Oregon State and Notre Dame, and the final will be the biggie &045; the Orange Bowl, the national championship matching Oklahoma and USC.

Referee Steve Landis and his crew officiated the SEC Championship between Auburn and Tennessee and did a good job. Included in Landis’ crew was Mississippian Don Shanks.

As I have noted before, the crew which officiates the championship game does not receive a bowl assignment. The Las Vegas Bowl crew will be headed by referee Rocky Goode of Knoxville. The Insight Bowl will see referee Doyle Jackson who hails from Conway, Ark., and the Orange Bowl crew will be led by referee Steve Shaw from Birmingham.

Steve’s group includes Mississippian Stan Murray, who lives in Columbus and is the only Mississippi resident to receive a bowl assignment from the SEC.

This season seems to have a better selection of bowl game assignments for SEC football officials than did last season. Last year saw SEC officials assigned to work the Continental Tire Bowl (all the way over in Charlotte, N.C.), the Sun Bowl in El Paso and the Gator Bowl in Jacksonville, Fla.

I don’t know what criteria the NCAA uses when assigning which conference assigns official to which bowl games, but having three game assignments seems to have become the norm for the SEC.

It seems strange that in 2003, with LSU playing for the national championship, the SEC drew no BCS Bowl assignments, but this year they will be officiating the national championship game.

I have never met Ole Miss head coach Ed Orgeron, but I am sure I saw him participate in LSU scrimmages when he spent his freshman year there. He seems to be a real go-getter and is known to be a great recruiter. Those traits might be just what the Rebels need, and for Chancellor Khayat and and Athletic Director Boone’s sakes, he had better win games.

Coach David Cutcliffe has landed at Notre Dame as their new offensive coordinator. The Irish are certainly not my favorite college team, but for Coach Cut’s sake I wish them some sort of success. He is a good man and a good coach and deserved a better fate than Ole Miss handed him. He had to know that such extreme loyalty to his assistant coaches could cost him his own job, and it did.

I’d like to thank my readers and wish each of you and your families a very merry and safe Christmas. I refuse to be politically correct and say &uot;happy holidays&uot; as do so many store clerks now. When they say &uot;happy holidays&uot; to me, I answer, &uot;Merry Christmas.&uot;

Some smile, some just turn away. That’s just their loss.

Merry Christmas, 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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