Two more bowl games and this college football season will finally end. I did not watch a single bowl game from beginning to end, but I did see at least part of all of them.

I even watched a small part of the late-night Troy-Northern Illinois contest in the Silicon Valley Bowl, which drew about 20,000 fans. I did not know the final outcome of that game until two days later.

The SEC officiating crew who worked the Insight Bowl in Phoenix matching Notre Dame and Oregon State was flag frugal. The Irish were penalized but twice for 10 yards, while winner Oregon State drew only five flags for 45 yards in penalties.

This was an improvement over the group from the SEC who had the Las Vegas Bowl. Bear in mind that my comments are not meant as criticism of either crew of officials and that each and every flag thrown was a result of a violation seen by one or more officials.

I have just always felt the ideal game would be one in which no penalties are found and no one would even remember the officials were on the field. Only family and official observers go to games to watch the officials.

The bowl games this season seemed to have no more or less officiating controversies than seen during the regular season. I do not listen to television commentators when they criticize calls because, with rare exception, they do not know what they are talking about.

The single really bad call I saw happened in the Houston Bowl between Colorado and Texas-El Paso. A pass near the sideline was obviously complete, but the field judge, down field from the play and completely blocked out by the receiver’s body, ruled the pass incomplete.

That official was wearing a &uot;U&uot; on his shirt, indicating his normal position is as an umpire. As the umpire officiates among the linemen, he seldom if ever rules on plays like the one in question.

I do not understand why the line judge, who had to trail the play and was (or should have been) in perfect position to rule on the catch, did not overrule the other official.

I don’t know which conference assigned those officials, but they need to work on their mechanics. Maybe that official with the &uot;U&uot; was the alternate official and was pressed into action because of injury to the field judge or for some other reason, but that play was a text book example of when you look for help.

Utah looked really good in whipping Pittsburgh in the Fiesta Bowl. The Utes can play with anyone in the country, but they did have the ugliest uniforms I saw in the bowl games.

Tennessee played their best game of the season and really whipped the poor Aggies. LSU played poorly but still deserved a better fate than to have Iowa complete a 56-yard TD pass on the final play for the win.

Alabama and Florida played uninspired games, and Georgia almost let their game get away from them. Say what they want about Georgia’s quarterback David Greene, but defensive end David Pollack is the Bulldog’s bell cow.

And that’s official.

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

AlanWard39517@aol.com

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