After TCU’s epic 51-45 win over Michigan in the Fiesta Bowl on Saturday, Fox Sports analyst Joel Klatt called out the game officials.
Replay in CFB is broken & Targeting foul is equally broken!
— Joel Klatt (@joelklatt) January 1, 2023
- Clearly a TD in first half
- 100% targeting (and I hate targeting) at end
Officiating in CFB needs an overhaul...No reason for every conference to have their own officials...Should have a national officiating base
On The Joel Klatt Show, he expanded on his tweet, calling college football officiating "broken."
"We really need to fix it and—maybe more importantly or specifically—replay is broken,” he said.
Klatt believes replay officials failed to correctly call targeting penalties in both College Football Playoff semifinals Saturday.
He also believes replay should not have overturned Michigan’s touchdown early in the second quarter. All three calls, according to Klatt, had a profound impact on the outcome of the games.
If targeting were called late in the fourth quarter of TCU’s win, Michigan would have had a first down on its own 40-yard line with 25 seconds remaining. Instead, TCU kneeled on the next play, sealing the win.
Not targeting. Ok. pic.twitter.com/QcI6TVlBFd
— James T. Yoder (@JamesYoder) January 1, 2023
The play after the overturned touchdown pass, TCU recovered a Michigan fumble in the end zone for a touchback, allowing the Horned Frogs to maintain a 14-3 lead.
Should this have been ruled a touchdown?? pic.twitter.com/K3zIX1qv62
— PFF (@PFF) December 31, 2022
In Georgia’s win over Ohio State, the Buckeyes settled for a field goal in the third quarter after what Klatt believes was a blown targeting call on WR Marvin Harrison Jr. After the brutal hit, OSU's top receiving option missed the remainder of the game.
Should this be targeting?pic.twitter.com/WfgCFnVC2j
— PFF (@PFF) January 1, 2023
Klatt, of course, was not the lone media critic.
No one understands targeting. Not even the refs.
— Danny Kanell (@dannykanell) January 1, 2023
The solutions to college football officiating problems, according to Klatt, are fairly simple: Do away with conference affiliations, eliminate the “illusion of bias,” and take subjectivity out of the targeting call.
Klatt harps on conference affiliations because they tend to lead to inconsistency in how rules are applied. Rules and roles are emphasized and defined differently from conference to conference.
In Klatt’s ideal system, on-field officiating and replay would be centralized nationally for consistency.
“No one conference should have their officials,” he said. “It should be a national officiating base.”
Of course, Klatt’s proposed changes would not end criticism of officiating, but they would solve many key issues plaguing college football.
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